Where to begin? With the Jekyll or the Hide? There are so many people who love Tobin: Mrs. Sheron, Coach Griffin, Coach Sean, the woman who walked her dog by Tobin's patrol post every day to hear his pleasant greeting, parents of Brenna's friends, whose little girls love Tobin and he just lets them bother him when they are over, Tobin's church leaders; the woman, who called to tell Tobin what a great young man he was after he had given a talk to our entire congregation, the list is endless....I will call this my bucket list of people, because, if Tobin can reach people like this then he will have a full and rich life.
And then there is this other, shorter list. The list of people that Tobin show's his "angry teenager" side too. He isn't overly kind to these people. I know of only two, maybe three people, who are on this list. Unfortunately, they all happen to be teachers of Tobin's, and 2 happen to be PE teachers. And they both collided today.
First, I got this email from Andy telling me that Tobin's football league has a chance to play in a Crab bowl football game and that each coach had to pick two players from their team to tryout to play in this Crab Bowl. And Tobin's coach has been so impressed with Tobin's ability, his determination, his work ethic, his character and his talent, so he wants Tobin to be one of his two players to try out!!!! I was so proud of Tobin. At that moment, my world was hazy with happiness, everything smelled sweet like cotton candy (it was later that I realized a student was eating sugary candy and that's where the smell was most likely coming from; but it made for a very delicious, savory moment)!
And then an hour later, coming back to my desk; I sat down to my computer and there it was. I recognized that the name of the email sender was familiar, but I didn't know why. And then I opened it to read about Tobin's misbehavior, my heart sank from its highest high to what felt like the lowest low, but I only know that's becuase it was so high to begin with. How could Tobin misbehave for this one teacher when he was so good for so many others?
Knowing their history, my feeling is that she needs to lighten up a little bit, but Tobin needs to stop pushing her buttons. And if Todd is reading this, before he blows a gasket, let me say, he was wrong this time, there was nothing right in what he did!
And now how do I handle it? Well.....I think Andy's approach was genius! He asked Tobin,
how do you think his teacher would react if she were at an event and heard everyone from the bucket list speak about you? Andy let Tobin think about this for a minute. And then.....he said, and
how do you think all of those on the bucket list would respond if they heard your teacher talk about you? At this point, we could see that Tobin understood.
We just told Tobin that he needed to be himself with this teacher; that she would see what everyone else saw. If she were to see the change, she would be well... grateful first, and amazed second.
But why does Tobin have to be such a Jekyll and Hide? I get not liking teachers, but heavens above. Why can't he just go in, put his head down and get his work done without making waves?
Signing off, Paige
