I was also wearing a shirt that said, "Go Hard or Go Home" from the insane bodybuilding clan called, "Animal", which I would point to when the students looked my way during the test.
It is this state that allows us overcome seemingly impossible odds.......what can be only temporary limitations for ourselves.......and just as importantly........for others.
If humanity is going to evolve past the, "Look at me and what I can do" world......and into the "Look at we and what WE can do" world, we have to change from the inside-out, and BELIEVE no amount of difficulty is too heavy for us to lift if we're willing to work together to develop the strength to lift it.
The student who is finally dreaming big but able to do nothing on math tests can't even add.On Monday she was sure 6 + 2 = 7. It is well-known fact that it impossible to teach someone 5th-grade math when they're only on a Kindergarten level..........unless....
"If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning."
Gandhi
Gandhi
.......the impossible is changed to in-possible and the teaching goes internal in an unbelievably effective way. Since she trusts me I was allowed to wander around in her head this week, acting as electrician rewiring her neural network until she was able to begin understanding the basic math concepts that would allow her to figure out more advanced problems than simple addition.
We played, "I Have a Dream" and some Buddhist Zen meditation music for the rest of the test, and as time ran out I went over to her. I knelt down in front of the desk and looked at her answers. I reached my arms over the desk and wrapped her in my arms. Last week she got a 0%. This week she got a 40%.
Last week another student got his highest score, a 38%, and when another student said, "So what? You still failed", he said back, "So? I got a new high score. I'm growing!". I smiled and it was as if my heart could take a rest because the change had happened not just from an external grade, but from an internal change in his inner wisdom and strength.
And I KNOW this will happen with this girl too.
In fact the male student understands the concept of place value so well now that he's going to his former 4th and 3rd grade teachers next week to teach a lesson to their students. I heard these two teachers also cared for and pushed him like I do, so I've been bringing them into my head and heart to teach him this year; three teachers for just one student. And now he'll be teaching in the same class where just two years ago he had to be removed for punching kids in the face or throwing a chair across the room on a weekly basis.
Les Brown
And while all 23 students in class failed the first test 2 1/2 months ago, of the ones who took #6 on Friday only 9 are still failing (but growing), 3 scored a D (including the former chair-thrower), 1 scored a C, 2 scored B's, and 4 scored A's (one whose previous high was a 73% scored a 98%, and the student who scored a 100% last week did it again - freeing her to work on advanced math projects as if she was in a gifted class).
"You don't get in life what you want;
you get in life what you are."
Les Brown
you get in life what you are."
Les Brown
The most beautiful, special and powerful thing about the results of all this newly created belief and ability, and the fact that it has created fearless entities after their dreams, is that it goes far beyond the walls of the classroom...
It goes back into all those who have ever believed in them........and out into the universe for anyone wanting to believe in themselves more.............and for the rest of all time.
This is why "WE" are so important.
Jaye Miller
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