Miranda

“Be a vision of hope, believe in the brilliance of your clients and you will unleash that brilliance and greatness in them.” Larry Indiviglia

There is one moment from my teaching background that I will never forget. I was a student teacher at a small low-economic school in central Kentucky. It was early on in my student teaching possibly the first or second week. My cooperating teacher, Mrs. Lambert was a sweet, petite, busy-body of a woman who was very efficient and who ate a single piece of chocolate every day with her lunch. As I entered the class of 24 second graders, I remember specifically assessing each student as I encountered them. The tall, African American student was brilliant, but very tightly wound. Thomas, the small freckled child was prone to cry…about everything. Eric had Autism, and he was known to suddenly pinch, scratch, or break out in laughter.

Then there was Miranda. Miranda was obviously from one of the lower income families even in a school such as ours as evidenced from her worn out sneakers and hand-me-down jeans. Miranda was a well behaved student with long white/blonde hair that was in a constant state of mayhem and needed a good trim as her bangs hung down through her line of vision. Miranda was quiet. She didn’t demand a lot of attention, and so from me, she didn’t really get it. Miranda was not at the top of the class. I would place her somewhere close to the bottom. She really struggled with most of the things we were learning in class, and homework was NOT turned in by Miranda.

One day, as the kids were having “quiet work time,” Miranda slumped up to Mrs. Lambert to show that she had completed her work. Since I was still early on in my student teaching, my job was to shadow Mrs. Lambert. Essentially just watch every move she made. As Miranda presented her paper, her teacher’s eyes lit up. “Miranda!” She exclaimed with maybe a bit too much emotion. “This is beautiful!” And she proceeded to pick out specifics about why Miranda’s paper showed such brilliance.
“Are we looking at the same paper?” I thought to myself. There were obvious errors. Some Mrs. Lambert pointed out, (after her long gush) and some she simply did not. Miranda’s paper displayed sloppy hand writing and based on the time it took her to complete it was not a 100% effort.
However, now it was Miranda’s face that lit up. She smiled widely and bounced back to her chair to make the corrections all the while beaming brilliantly. And Mrs. Lambert continued to praise Miranda even when she was out of earshot.
I went about my day wondering why this teacher would find such specialness in a girl who was in the same class as Thomas, Michael, and Rebecca who clearly out performed her in all things academic. But as I continued my weeks and months in that short semester in a second grade classroom I noticed a little blonde haired girl who stood a little taller, danced a bit more freely, and yes, even began to give greater effort to her daily menial tasks.
We all lead in some way, don’t we? We all have a Miranda who is under us. Whether that Miranda is our own child, a gal in bootcamp, or even a friend. The world will do its job of tearing down. Let us be a community who builds up.
Live WHOLLY fit today.

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