They don't understand

They Don't Understand by Sawyer Brown

The lesson the song above teaches finally sunk in recently. I’ve liked that song for a long time. Recently I had an experience that re-affirmed the lesson taught in the song. I teach math. I have a student in one of my Algebra II classes that is also in my math lab class. In math lab on the day we had reviewed for an upcoming test, he asked me for help on a problem that I had done for his class earlier that day. In my mind I’m thinking, “Gosh, why didn’t you just listen in class today,” but with a smile, said “sure.” As I started to help him, he halfway apologized, saying that he had a hard time paying attention in class today because he had just prior to class received some stressful news about his brother. I helped him with the problem and didn’t think too much more about it. The next day (test day) I saw him standing outside my door as I was teaching the period before his class. I went out to see what he wanted. In his tough high school football player voice he said, “I’m not going to be in class today, can I take the test another time.” Then with tears filling his eyes and his voice cracking, he said, “They don’t think my brother is going to make it.” I won’t go into the details of our exchange after that. But I will say that I went back into the classroom wondering to myself how many times I had judged a student’s behavior without really knowing what was going on? I gained a greater appreciation for people that day. How often do we judge others on what we see them do when what we couldn’t see was “their brother wasn’t going to make it”? We don’t understand.