I went to chapel on Monday because Nordic Choir was singing, and got a pleasant surprise.
I never expect much out of chapel. Jesus might hate me for saying that, but hey, if you're not feeling anything, don't fake it...The speakers are usually sort of a toss-up, and it's only 20 minutes, so I don't have enough time to really get into the God zone. When I saw that the speaker was going to be a student, I thought to myself, "well, at least we know Nordic will be good..."
As it turns out, I got a lot out of senior Katie Deaver's message. She was talking about just what I did when I came into the CFL. She talked about how we shouldn't make judgments. She told a story about how she came to chapel once during a college visit and saw a girl in a green baseball cap. This girl climbed over the seats to get to her friends and kept her hat on during the service. Katie was appalled. She admitted that she and her friend were making fun of this girl as the service went on. When it was time to share the peace, the only person who welcomed her and shared the peace was this terrible heathen who walked over the seats and didn't take her hat off in church. Moral of the story: don't judge a book by its cover.
I think that this point is so so so important for teachers to understand. The kid who dresses super weird could be the next Albert Einstein or Michael Phelps or Renee Flemming. The kid who doesn't try in your class could be a fantastic poet. Really getting to know your students is the only way to keep yourself from judging them. Keep an open mind and get to know the person rather than the packaging.
