Teaching a Better Way

Civility is a learned behavior, something that doesn’t come naturally. On the contrary, it’s in our nature to be selfish. It’s in our nature to fight, cheat, and steal, to scream, slap, and punch, to argue, lie, and blame, all in the name of our own interests, to feel like we’ve won, to feel like we’re better, to feel like we’ve got the upper hand at all costs. The only reason some of us don’t behave like that in our daily lives, in our jobs, with other people, is because someone or maybe a few dozen someones taught us a better way, and we never forgot those lessons. So when I see the diabolical hypocrisy and villainous behavior of our leaders in Washington, the absolute worst of us, every uncivil instinct that demonstrates a horrifying disregard of every will but their own, I am reminded of yet another reason to stay in the classroom. There are not enough words to thank every parent and teacher who stands in the gap, hoping against all reason that we might actually raise a generation that will, perhaps one day, live by the principles of integrity that we keep trying to teach, day after tireless day.