Don’t judge a book by its cover? In one regard, my question is: how can you not?? If we are mindful and actively police our thoughts, we are constantly judging one another and everything around us, labeling everything as good or bad.
If you went through life without judging things, how would it go? Judgement, I’d argue, can be vital to survival.
Read MoreFor more than a decade I had taught a unit about Social Labels. The base novel was the novel Monsterby Walter Dean Myers. In the book, the main character Steve is hanging out with the wrong people and gets caught up in this crowd. This group commits a robbery and murders the store owner in the process.
What I like about this story is that it focuses heavily on social and self labels. There are the social labels that Steve fights against such as: criminal, felon, murderer and monster.
In regards to the class, I challenge them to look at people for who they are, not what someone on television or social media might tell them about that person or group.
Read MoreI clearly remember sitting in the gym at my high school graduation and being confused as I noticed the eyes of the audience members which had turned to look at me.
The people on stage had just announced that they were presenting the American Legion Award for Leadership (which wasn’t surprising, given the nature of the ceremony) and that I had won it (which was, given the nature of my four years at RHS). I had never really considered myself a leader, more of a class clown. For some reason, that moment had a very profound and lasting impact on my life.
Fast forward through five years of college, I emerged (after four changes of my major) as a bright-eyed, first year teacher and coach.
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