Are You Trying to Make Us Look Bad? by Rafe Esquith:

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I recently completed a 3-week book tour for Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire. It was rather ironic. I was supposed to be on the road inspiring teachers and parents, but more often than not, I was the one being inspired.

I met thousands of caring and talented people. There are so many citizens in our nation who are working very hard every day and making a difference. We never read about them in the newspaper or see them on television. I met a man who has been a fabulous teacher for forty-five years in Portland, Oregon. It's exciting meeting heroes. It can be depressing that our culture seems more intrigued with Britney Spears' underwear than amazing individuals like the man in Portland.

Sadly, at every appearance on the tour I was asked the same question. A teacher would stand up and say, "Rafe, what do you think I should do? I love being a teacher. I am doing extra things with my kids, and the children are fantastic. But some of my fellow teachers are mean to me."

Perhaps the teacher began a chess club, or was coming in early to give struggling youngsters extra help, or putting on a play after school. Time and again, these dedicated stars felt the stinging pain of a colleague making critical and often downright mean-spirited comments. One would think the coworkers would be cheering. Instead, the final comment to some of these extraordinary teachers was "Are you trying to make us look bad?"

Last year, one of the best teachers I have ever seen left my school. The guy was a wizard. His kids did amazing things, and he humbly worked hard every day. He never asked anything of anyone, and never showed off. Yet a few teachers at our school were so mean to this gentle soul that he left. And the students at our school were the losers.

At every stop, I did my best to tell the truth. I wish I had a simple answer to this problem. I don't. All I could do was express what I have seen over the last quarter of a century.

When people are mean to you, try to remember this is not personal even though it feels that way. In any profession there are mean people. There are mean doctors, architects, lawyers, gardeners, and grocery clerks. It's the nature of our species.

Consider that when someone is mean to you, even though you are doing nothing wrong, it is a statement about them and not you. When someone is nasty to me at school, I take it as an opportunity to be kind in return. It's not easy. But in being nice to disagreeable people, it gives me the right to ask my own students to be nice. They see me being gracious and kind to those who are not. The children learn that to make our world kinder, it starts with us. If we keep escalating the spitefulness we all lose.

And if this helps, repeat this line to yourself but never out loud. If someone asks, "Are you trying to make me look bad?" you can think, "No I'm not. You look bad all by yourself!"

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