Lesson Learned #1: stupid drama

One time a girl complained to me about how a boy dumped her during first period, and then he asked out another girl in third period.  Perfect timing for her, this was right after I checked for homework and 80% of the class didn’t even care to try. In my frustration, I remember thinking the only reason why he liked you is because you started puberty earlier than the rest of the ninas, and you get to wear Hollister instead of Faded Glory. Truly insensitive, I know, so what came out in its stead? “Geez, what a jerk.”

Yesterday one of my craziest girls wrote me a note on a Post-It she stole from my desk. It read: “Mr. Chung I want to go jeeb.” So instead of learning about the Articles of Confederation, she learned how to say “home” in Korean.

Today she wrote me another note, more informative than the previous one, and it said “Veronica and I are not friends anymore.” Later in class she casually told me that she also cried during the period before.

I was tempted to dismissively nod and say “oh okay, I’m sorry, let’s get to work” and continue about my business making sure these kids can recite verbatim facts that they’ll never really care for again in life. No time for stupid drama! FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS! STOP STEALING MY POST-ITS!

After taking some time to reflect on today, I was reminded that if we take a minute to listen to the child beyond their words, we can tell that what we consider stupid drama, is to them, quite a hurtful reality. What makes them cry is really just as important as what makes us cry. I’ve learned that it takes humility to look through someone else’s perspective, but it takes love to embrace it.

Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to talk with her today after school, but tomorrow I’ll try.

sorta brand new

It’s been so long since I’ve written ANYTHING besides lesson plans, test questions, or emails. Actually, I’ve been wanting to write for some time now but I’ve been putting it off week after week. This is going to sound stupid, but it’s because I wanted to start a new blog entirely for this new season in my life, but I couldn’t come up with a cool name.

Well, after weeks of trying too hard to come up with something cool, I gave up. Instead of starting a new blog, I just deleted all the previous posts on this blog (for now).

Anyways, this blog is for Theophilus. It was an anonymous title given to the recipient of the letters from Luke. It means “lover of God,” “loved by God,” or “friend of God.” Additionally, this title was probably also used to protect this individual’s identity in case of future persecution.

Ironically, the reason why I started For Theophilus was to hide my identity as I’m now in a profession where I can get in trouble for “going public” with my faith. My last blog was never intended to be private so I had to retire that one. (It even had my name in the web address, and as you probably know, my name is not very common.) It’s not so much that I’m worried about losing my job, but it’s because I want to stay in it as long as possible because I got plenty of Kingdom work to do. From reading the news, it seems like parents, students, other teachers, and administrators can be competent stalkers and I can’t reach them as effectively if I get kicked out of school! On the other hand, I think if I truly do my real job well enough though, one day I’ll get fired. What a glorious day that will be.

So, this blog is brand new! sorta. I promise to try to update as frequently as I can!