Positive

The best part about the poetry is that the kids begged to share their work, and several students came to school with three or four more poems. Some rewrote their work in class. I was a little surprised at how thoughtful these ten year olds can be. One student wrote a poem about suicide and another from a pretty rough neighborhood about staying out of gangs. K didn't know where to go with her poem about the "silent killer" (sadness), I told her she ought to find a weapon to fight the silent killer and write about it in the last stanza. She came back with a beautiful closing line about love.

I raised my voice with a colleague the other day. We were discussing a victim of some serious bullying and I said we ought to include a positive blurb for parents to discuss with their children at home about the effects of bullying. He said the parents would whine and complain about us addressing such a negative topic. I said, "You can address a negative topic in a positive way." He interrupted me in utter disbelief. I got the impression he didn't believe what he was saying, he was just being negative. I interrupted him back and sternly, "There's ALWAYS A POSITIVE WAY TO DISCUSS THINGS!"

There were more than one pair of eyebrows raised in response to my response. "You've never seen me raise my voice," I said and continued,"I guess I'm just a little sensitive because..."