Wow...what a day at Schmucker!!!

Yesterday we did something at Five Star that we have never done before. We got kids to open up. We got them to take off the mask that they wear all the time and share some real stuff about who they are and what their life is like. I had one kid in my group who was just full of anger yesterday and didn't want to share anything. He finally shared with me that his younger brother (who is also in my group) has been beating him up verbally and has never told him that he loves him. He was deeply hurt by this.

We then moved on to another activity. If you have seen the movie Freedom Writers you know what this activity was like. We places a line on the floor and had kids split into two groups on each side of the line. We then began to ask questions like "If you have ever been made fun of for your physical appearance step toward the line." We asked a series of these questions until eventually just about everyone was on or near the line. The point is that we are all doing these things to each other and where did we learn to act like this? By this time the older brother was in tears and crying pretty hard. I went over to him and put arm around him and stood with him for a little while.

We then moved on to a time of team affirmation. I took my group and before we got started the two brothers were beginning to fight verbally back and forth. After talking to them both we realized that the younger brother was actually going over to apologize for the way he had been acting but the older brother put up his defenses to quick and began to reject for fear of being made fun of again. After they both realized they wanted the same thing, to get along, they looked at each other, both in tears and forgave each other and made a pact to stick for each other from now on.

Talk about a break through in the family. This moment may have saved tension and hatred from building up between two brothers for a long time. It is great to be apart of something that is literally changing the lives of students forever!!!