See Also:
Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero: The Barbara Jordan Story.
Life Lesson #68 – Avoid a Crisis Mentality.
It was time for the math test, when Brandon heard a whispering voice from across the aisle. “Give me a pencil,” said the boy in the yellow shirt. “I need it,” said Brandon, “it’s the only one I have.” That’s when the boy kicked Brandon’s leg and said, quietly, “That’s just a warning, dude, now give me a pencil.” Well, Brandon reached out to give the boy his pencil, but it wasn’t the boy who took it from his hand—it was Mrs. Foreman! She had seen and heard the whole thing, even though the boy was trying to be quiet about it. She gave the pencil back to Brandon, and then turned to the other boy and asked, “Where is your pencil?” He said, “I don’t know, I must’ve lost it.”
“Then look for it,” said the teacher. The boy opened his backpack, and that’s when Mrs. Foreman said, “It’s no wonder you keep losing things—you could lose a truck in there, what a mess!” And indeed his backpack was a mess. Within a couple of minutes he had found five pencils, but two were broken and none were sharpened. Mrs. Foreman explained that one reason he often didn’t have what he needed is because he wasn’t taking care of what he did have. Then she took the opportunity to teach him about being organized and about taking care of his personal property as well as school property. If we take care of our own things, and know where everything is, we not only HELP ourselves, but we can also even HELP others when they truly may need to borrow something. “Now,” she told the boy, “if you work on that hurtful attitude you have, you can actually start becoming a HERO for others, because you’ll be organized to HELP them, instead of taking from them and threatening them.”
“Wow”, thought the boy, What Mrs. Foreman said was really starting to make sense, and he truly began to change that very day.
– Jim Lord