I admit it, I sometimes raise my voice to the kids at Nice View.  I raised my voice when I was home all day with my own 4 and Saturday movie night is no exception since I’m around 99 kids.  And that’s if only the boarders are there, sometimes we have day scholar students stop by which takes the number to about 109!

It was the end of the evening, we finished Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, prayed for the evening and then dismissed everyone to bed.  We had desks around the door so there was just a little, tiny path for students to get out the door.  I tried several times to tell someone to take a desk outside so we’d have a bigger pathway, but no one was listening.  They simply wanted to get out in whatever fashion they could…over desks, over each other and squeeze out the door.  I finally had enough and told everyone to just stop where they were and yes my voice was raised at this point.  Once I had every one’s attention though I was able to get a couple of kids to remove desks so the path was wider.  

I see where I went wrong too (after discussing it with Chuck), next week I’ll access the situation before anyone gets up to leave, make any necessary requests then have everyone leave in an orderly fashion.  Let’s see how that works.

Whew!  I’m not trying to be hard on them just to be a jerk (although they may think I am, just like my own kids did at times!).  I want these kids, as I wanted my own, to be respectful human beings.  Am I asking too much of them to be courteous to each other and to me?  I don’t think so…getting them to really understand what it means to love your neighbor as yourself is a life lesson and one these kids can learn by living harmonously together at Nice View.