One of my teacher friends shared a story with me today that saddened my heart. She has a student who has a pretty rough home environment. His parents are divorced and part of his difficulty stems from the fact that he is continually pitted in the middle of his parents and is never allowed to voice his opinion or concerns. Today he informed the teacher that he had something he really wanted to share with her, but his mom said he couldn’t. So without too much prodding, the teacher asked if someone was hurting him, if he was hurting someone else, or if the student was hurting himself. He replied that it was nothing of that nature, but it was about the teacher herself.
My friend then encouraged the student that he should do what he feels is right, but if he doesn’t want to go against his mother’s word, then it would be best if he kept the information to himself. The poor boy couldn’t resist telling, and he said, “My mom doesn’t like you.”
Now of course there’s going to be times when a parent isn’t going to like and/or agree with the way teachers do things, I understand all that. Luckily the boy felt comfortable telling the teacher, and she encouraged him to continue to chat with her about this in the future if he gets upset about it again. But I was just so saddened that the mom put her child in the middle of yet another relationship.
Anyone else ever had a similar experience like this or know someone who has?
No comments:
Post a Comment