When the girls find out, they’ll never speak to him again as long as he lives.
Wet Pants
October 9th 2008There Are Opportunities All Around You To Do Good
Come with me to a third grade classroom. . . . There is a nine year old young boy sitting at his desk and all of the sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It’s never happened before, and he knows when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they’ll never speak to him again as long as he lives.
The boy believes his heart is going to stop. He put his head down on his desk and prays this prayer, “Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now will be too late.”
He looked up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered.
As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie was carrying a goldfish bowl that was filled with water. Susie tripped in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumped the bowl of water in the boy’s lap.
The boy pretended to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, “Thank you! Thank you!”
Now all of the sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk.
The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else – Susie.
She tries to help, but they tell her to get back. “You’ve done enough, you klutz!”
Finally, at the end of the day, as they were waiting for the bus, the boy walked over to Susie and whispers, “You did that on purpose didn’t you?”
Susie whispered back, “I wet my pants once too.”
Unknown Author
There are defining moments in our lifetime that shape and mold us. Our confidence can be compromised by one event and our confidence can be enhanced by one event. It is a paramount responsibility to help create positive self building experiences for our students and co-workers and it is of equal importance to help others avoid compromising experiences. You never know how one act of kindness will not only change an individual but will linger in their life forever and continue to affect the outcome of their success.
I asked a recipient of the ‘Teacher of the Year’ award what he felt was the single most important thing he did that made his students like him so much. He said, “I treat them like human beings first, and then I teach them history.” When someone knows you respect them as an equal, then you can go to work and they will reciprocate that respect by working hard for you. It’s not magic; it’s just being alert and doing the right thing.
Therefore, intervene in an incident to protect a student or co-worker from a potentially embarrassing moment - even if it may transfer the focus to you. Your strength of character can handle it!
