I will never understand

As long as I live, I will never understand it. I will never understand how a 12 year old child can ignore a morning greeting or grumble in reply to a morning greeting. This happens to me every day. No matter how bad yesterday was or what kind of mood I'm in, I always stand at my classroom door in the morning and offer friendly, cheerful greetings. "Good morning!". "How are you this morning?". "It's nice to see you today!". You folks would be shocked at the number of students who completely ignore my greeting. I'm telling you they don't look at me or verbally acknowledge my greeting. I don't care who you are or what your upbringing has been, there is no excuse for ignoring someone saying good morning to you. Other students acknowledge my greeting, but growl or grumble at me. It truly is unbelievable. Some people might say I'm being unreasonable or have expectations that can't be met by pre-teens. Some people might say, "Kids will be kids". No. Kids will not be kids. I think returning well wishes in the morning is common courtesy. It's a simple matter of manners. Most of my students have no concept of courtesy, have no manners and possess very few, if any, social skills. I don't believe this is symptomatic of kids in general, I think it's a byproduct of kids coming from broken homes. Homes where there is no stability, no guidance, no rules, no expectations and no training in how to treat other people.

I'm writing this because I had a tough day at school yesterday. But after being at home with my supportive family last evening and after some prayer, I came to work this morning with a fresh, new attitude. This is the day the Lord hath made and I am rejoicing in it. Then I stood at my classroom door about 8:15 and was met with children either ignoring or growling at me. Not all of the children, but a vast majority of them.

No matter what I do today, I am going to try and glorify God with it. It is because of Him that I am living and breathing and physically able to come back to school for another round today.

Good Morning, loyal blog readers! It's nice to see you today!

Soli' Deo Gloria!