affectiveliving.com

While she felt guilty about not getting the tooth to the kid at the end of the day, I felt intrigued by how much stuff teachers bring home. We not only bring home physical things — paper clips, pencils, notes, and human teeth But we don’t need to bring the crap home, filling our houses and our relationships with negativity. Choose to bring home good memories, good experiences, good art.

We often don’t talk about, don’t confront, don’t address our own negativity. ex: I can’t help my kids be better readers if their parents don’t value education. Acknowledge obstacles as valuable when paired with action ex: You’ve pointed out a lot of challenges that I don’t think we should ignore. We can’t ignore the fact that our profession has de-mentors – that we might sometimes be the de-mentors.

I’ve heard and read comments alluding to alternative education as a waste of time. Last year, sparked by what I was hearing about alternative schools, I took another visit our district’s alternative high school. I sat with passionate alternative education teachers about the work they do. What these students and educators wanted was for all of us to shift our views—to see alternative students as unique, determined people, to see alternative education as an incredible option for those who don’t fit our traditional approaches.

I recently set out to watch the series because (a.) I teach high schoolers (b.) I teach our peer-listener program, which trains teens to help peers who need help, and (c.) These conversations led me to understand why I was so unsettled by the show: So many teens and adolescents are watching the show without opportunities to process, debrief, or better understand the complexity of mental illness. For example, many adolescents (and adults) scoff at evidence of self-harm as “attention-seeking,” ironically failing to help these students get the healthy support and attention they need.