Generous fifth graders

From Jessica Revilla, Glen Alpine Elementary School, Burke County, NC

In my classroom this semester I have been able to see my students be extremely generous. This school year my students have faced many difficult times in their lives. Since August, in my classroom alone, we have been faced with 5 divorces, 2 deaths (one father and one sister), and 4 family members with cancer currently. I have been overwhelmed by the amount of generosity that students have shared with one another due to the strain they are all faced with each day.

My students have brought in money to support one another and made so many sympathy cards that I lost count. They have shared their personal struggles with one another and not felt intimidated by the issues they are faced with. Each school day I speak to my students about how we should always be generous with one another and how that does not always mean giving gifts, it can simply mean giving kind words to one another as often as we can. I hope that my students can gain something positive from the struggles that they have been faced with and learn how we can ultimately give so much of ourselves to one another when our thought and kind words are needed the most.

The truth is that I feel that I have been impacted the most by their willingness to give so much to one another. All adults could learn from this and all adults should be doing the same. I want to continue to be the best role model of generosity and many other character, my students have seen, but I am humbled and astounded by the way they have been so willing to step up and take on some of the burden that their classmates are enduring. I know that these situations will last a lifetime for my student and me; I hope they will continue to impact one another in such a positive manner. I am thankful to be a part of such wonderful young people. Their generosity has taught me so many things.