Friday afternoon and there were only a couple of children left after the school bell had rang for hometime. The stragglers were ambling off the playground with their parents. The Year 6 child, who was collecting her sibling from my class had waited until almost everyone had gone.
She asked politely if she could speak to me. Her younger sister stood a few week away. She explained that after an RE lesson, looking at an aspect of Islam, on Wednesday afternoon, a boy in ny class had gone up to her sister and said:
"Your religion is stupid. Your God is stupid. And we shouldn't have to learn about it."
The eloquant Year 6 child oozed with confidence as she continued to explain how these comments had not only upset her sister, but had clouded over the rest of the family.
I was destraught. I called 'my' child over and place my arms around both of them. It took a few deep breaths before I was able to speak. The girls were surprised as my eyes filled up and I apologised that should see me cry but that hopefully they would realise how upset I was too.
I looked 'my' child in the eye and asked her to recall the number of times I share in class that I am Christian. She smiled. I shared how hurt I would be if someone said those words to me, in fact, it felt like they had.
On Monday morning, the words Grace and Peace will be repeat lots of times before I approach the culprit.
3 comments:
How sad but how lovely that they felt they could talk to you. the culprit, I would imagine, is probably echoing words that he/she has heard from home. Trust all is well with you? Judy
Dawn, I was really touched to read this. I think it says a lot that they spoke to you and I so admire your reaction. You are right - united we stand. It is so important that we support each other - Islamic, Jewish, Christian, all.
Thank you, both. I didn't end up speaking to him today - to be fair, there wasn't really an appropriate time, but think I still feel a bit mad and don't want my personal feelings to affect my professional judgement.
However, later this week in Personal, Health and Social Educaton (PSHE), we are looking at other peoples feelings and I have used this incident as the basis for one of the dilemas!
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