Love: strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties
Auntie knew right when I needed this video of Ben. It made me cry. He asked why. It's because it made me happy...hard to explain to a three year old.
At school, I feel like the mother to so many. We have almost 1,100 students and many of them come from broken homes, severe pain, all kinds of abuse, and other things to sad to even mention. Because of working with people like David Truitt and Ted Vierling, I learned that relationships are THE most important thing in education. If a child does not feel safe, loved, fed or accepted, they will not learn anything. So when I had the chance to be a librarian, I knew I wanted the library to be a place where all students felt welcome, loved and accepted. I could go on and on about the reasons, but I just have to think of my time in junior high and that's enough for me. Thankfully, the school welcomed that idea too and has let me love kids freely.
So much has changed in education since I started teaching, but so much has stayed the same too. Kids still want to have fun with their friends, make connections with teachers and enjoy their day at school. They also love stickers and candy! As the librarian, I see all the kids from sixth to eighth grade. Sometimes they come in on their own and sometimes with their class. Some of the sweetest and hardest moments happen when a student comes to share with me about something difficult.
Yesterday, at the end of the day, after setting up a projector for an anti-bullying speaker, I walked out to find one of the girls in my coding class looking for her friend in the hall. See, her friend had gone to the bathroom but never returned to class. Sweet Girl asked me to stay with her until she could find her friend. Not even five minutes later I was standing in the girls' bathroom with the two of them with tears streaming down our faces. Sweet Girl is moving back to Mexico and the other cannot handle it right now. So from now until Sweet Girl moves, they are coming to the library and eating lunch, just the two of them, in our student room so they can have some quality time together.
I love this quote from Katie Davis - it is so applicable to my life right now in so many ways.
I wish so much that our schools could remember this and focus on the whole child instead of just grades and testing. Honestly, I thought that by getting out of the classroom and moving to the library, I would not have to deal with testing, but when you're in public education, it's everywhere.
Thanks to people who have made a difference in my life, taught and led me well, I will continue to seek to love kids and meet them where they are at, give them snacks and food from the library fridge, give them hugs, laugh and cry with them, and ultimately give them unconditional love because sometimes the library is the only place they can find it.
