One thing that saddened me during my years as a school counselor was how many students carried around negative stories about the world. They believed the world was full of bad guys; that people were out to get them. They also felt bad about themselves. Often, they...
Not long after I’d begun work as a counselor in a high poverty, high trauma school, I played a social/emotional game with a group of students in which I’d ask questions to get them thinking. “What would you do if you found $10,000?” I asked the children. Having come...
The 6th grade students at the Outdoor School were looking at the results of water samples they had just taken when a great blue heron landed in a tree above our heads. All the children turned to gaze at it, their eyes huge with excitement. What is that? they wanted to...
Having spent many years as a teacher, I remember how challenging the week before spring break could be – everyone feeling the freedom of spring after the long months of winter and needing a break from each other. I can’t help but think how much harder it is...
I was teaching in a 6th grade classroom one day when I was struck by the way some students were talking about what a dangerous world we live in, with “bad” people lurking everywhere in it. “How many bad people do you know?” I asked. “Oh, not many, really. But there...
