The Perils of Speaking Truth

Yesterday and today have been full of parent/student/teacher conferences (where the student is in the conference with me and their parents). I was scared to death...students' parents are scary! Now that I am a good 80% through with them, I am finding that I am much more bold than I thought I would be. Shocker, I know :) Even with the good kids, I am challenging them to step up and be the Godly role models that they can be.

So far I have made three kids get teary-eyed and one mom and one student full-on cry. The kids who got teary-eyed are kids that I see being drawn into the peer pressure of middle school (gossip, bullying, making stupid choices, etc.). I told them that I expect more of them. With every single student, I have praised them for the gifts that I have seen in class--from their attitudes to their friendliness to their respectfulness toward me. No child has gone without hearing words of encouragement from me during their conference. However, there have been several of the students that I have called out and spoken the harsh truth to. I told them to "man up" or (for the girls) "step up" and work toward attaining the Godly character that we talk about every day in devotions and weekly in chapel.

The mom who I made cry...It was a GOOD thing. I told her son that I SOOOO appreciated who he was. He is smart, kind, funny, hard-working, and on and on. But I also told him that he is a leader, and with that comes certain responsibilities. I told him that he needs to start walking away from bad situations and from wrong conversations. I told him that he could be THE example of a Godly young man in my classroom, but that I feel like he's letting that slide so that he is seen as "cool." His mom starting tearing up and said that they (his parents) had been telling him exactly that for several months now. She thanked me profusely for seeing in their son all of the amazing qualities that he has, but she thanked me even more for caring about him enough to speak the truth into his life.

Wow. I've just really felt like the Holy Spirit has guided these conferences and that the Lord wants me to not baby these kids, but to challenge them to go above and beyond. Here's the deal...I have them for one year--two at best. It is not only my job to teach them the facts and subjects they need to know to move on, it is also my responsibility to see that their character grows while they're in my class. Part of my job as a Christian and as a teacher at a Christian school is to do everything in my power to make my kids look like Jesus more by the end of the year than they did at the beginning.

That's a lot harder to do at this middle school level than it was when I taught preschool!!! And I am sure that a few of my students are mad at me/hate me. I know that certain kids will be shooting daggers at me with their eyes come Monday. But the truth is, part of teaching is speaking the hard truth into a child's life...No matter what their reaction may be. If I ignore their character and behavior outside of class simply because they are getting good grades and being "good" while they are physically in my classroom, I am doing them a huge disservice!! And I am not doing my job as their teacher!

Am I wrong in this?! I don't regret anything I said. And maybe absolutely nothing will change in those kids' hearts or behaviors come Monday, but I've done my part and not ignored the Spirit's leading in calling them out. Luckily, every single parent was on board with what I said. Ok...I'm done with my rant now. Don't know if anyone will actually read this, but I just felt like I needed to say it.