Weekend Kindness
Reaching Others Through Kindness

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My wife had used my High School year book as a writing surface the other day, and when I saw it I started to flip through the pages looking at the names of the people that signed it.  One of the names stood out as both a lady that was no longer with us, but who was also one of the teachers of whom I have fond memories.

You see, it’s not the easy teachers that we remember, it’s the hard ones– those that made us work, that inspired us, that made us reach inside ourselves and draw out the best in us.

To illustrate, check out this story called Cattywumpus:

Mr. Whitson taught sixth-grade science. On the first day of class, he gave us a lecture about a creature called the cattywampus, an ill-adapted nocturnal animal that was wiped out during the Ice Age. He passed around a skull as he talked. We all took notes and later had a quiz.

When he returned my paper, I was shocked. There was a big red X through each of my answers. I had failed. There had to be some mistake! I had written down exactly what Mr. Whitson said. Then I realized that everyone in the class had failed. What had happened?

Very simple, Mr. Whitson explained. He had made up all the stuff about the cattywampus. There had never been any such animal. The information in our notes was, therefore, incorrect. Did we expect credit for incorrect answers?

Needless to say, we were outraged. What kind of test was this? And what kind of teacher?

We should have figured it out, Mr. Whitson said. After all, at the every moment he was passing around the cattywampus skull (in truth, a cat’s), hadn’t he been telling us that no trace of the animal remained? He had described its amazing night vision, the color of its fur and any number of other facts he couldn’t have known. He had given the animal a ridiculous name, and we still hadn’t been suspicious. The zeroes on our papers would be recorded in his grade book, he said. And they were.

Mr. Whitson said he hoped we would learn something from this experience. Teachers and textbooks are not infallable. In fact, no one is. He told us not to let our minds go to sleep, and to speak up if we ever thought he or the textbook was wrong.

The best teachers make us think– they’re the ones that walk us through the teaching instead of just giving us facts.

Whether it’s your pastor, your parents, or your teacher, make sure to thank them for what they are doing in your life, and learn to think through what they say and teach you.

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