In 6th grade, a Russian kid named Marc came to our class. This was his fourth country and his fourth language and he couldn't speak English well. At first the kids gathered around and helped him out. The teacher commented how proud she was in helping him adjust.
Unfortunately things took a turn for the worst. When the class was in session, he would be asked to play by himself in the back. The other kids got jealous that his classwork was too easy (1st-2nd grade level) and he got too much free time. They started picking on him in class and in recess. He couldn't defend himself. One time, he went to the teacher to complain. The teacher was clueless to what was going on and couldn't understand him and his English very well so the same kids who were picking on him went up to him in front of the teacher asking him what was wrong and pretending to try to help him out.
When I asked a friend why he picked on him and he said because it was fun. Another friend of mine told me later on that he didn't picked on him and I told him bullshit. There was only one kid who didn't pick on him and treated him decently as I tried to. To this day, I'm very fond to remember that and consider him to be a true friend in heart - That kid was David Kelvin.
The only regret is while I didn't pick on him and treated him decently, I didn't stand up for him fearing peer pressure. Today, I led the kid's service at the Temple and we talked about torah portion on "Loshon Hora" and how we have to watch our tongue and not speak bad about others. When I asked all the kids what should you do if someone was saying bad things about other kids, my daughter's hand shot up. She said "We should tell them to knock it off and stop picking on them and treat them nicely." I smiled. We can't change the past, we can always learn from it and try to teach our children's not to make the mistakes we made.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment