Our Students Need to Know We Believe in Them

Sitting up late tonight listening to songs and I came across one by Mumford & Sons called, "Believe".

I watched the official video and then the one with the lyrics.........Then I watched them both again.

The new school year starts in a week, and I need to believe in a group of students I've never met, at a school where I've never taught. 

How do I get these students to believe in themselves? How do I get them to believe in me?

After closing my eyes and listening to the lyrics over and over, I now know how.

I have to first believe in them. 

But how do I get myself to believe in them; and believe I can have the strength to hold onto them each day all the time?

I need to go back to what I DO KNOW about each one of them, even though I've never met any one of them. 

I KNOW they all learned how to walk, and if they all learned how to walk then I KNOW they all can learn how to think.

How did they ALL learn how to walk? They were all COMPLETELY BELIEVED IN that they could learn how to walk. 

And just how were they ALL completely believed in?

They were all COMPLETELY LOVED by those around them; because powerful, pure, unquestioned BELIEF in another TAKES powerful, pure, unquestioned LOVE for another.

So then all I need to do is COMPLETELY BELIEVE in their ability to think, to learn, and to grow by COMPLETELY LOVING their potential to do so. 

But I'm just a teacher, and I've heard that those who can, do; and those that cannot, teach. Who am I to believe I can do this? 

Well, because I know the opposite is true; that those who CAN LOVE and CAN BELIEVE IN OTHERS........are called TEACHERS!

This is what we do, and these lyrics are our students' challenge to us. And successfully meeting this challenge goes far beyond determining how well they do on the state tests.

How well we meet this challenge affects how much they will love and believe in themselves, and be able to love and believe in others, as adults.

What we do this year affects them forever. I'd say they're all worth fighting for, and not fighting with.