Validations - A Story

A school teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could write about their classmates.

At the end of the class, each one handed in their paper.

At the next class, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.

 

At the following class, she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. Each student said 'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn't know others liked me so much".

 

No one ever mentioned it in class again. The teacher never knew if they discussed the validations after class or with their parents. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. 

 

Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature.

The church was packed. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin. As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. 'Were you Mark's math teacher?' he asked. She nodded: 'yes.' Then he said: 'Mark talked about you a lot.'

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together for a meal. Mark's mother and father were there, and were waiting to speak with this teacher.

'We want to show you something,' his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket 'They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.'

Opening the paper, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

'Thank you so much for doing that,' Mark's mother said. 'As you can see, Mark treasured it.'

All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, 'I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home.'

Chuck's wife said, 'Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.'

'I have mine too,' Marilyn said. 'It's in my diary'

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this with me at all times,' Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: 'I think we all saved our lists'

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again. We can easilt forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be.

So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important. Tell them all the things you like about them, their kindness, thoughtfulness, generosity, honesty.sense of fairness and equality, their skills and abilities that they offer to others in service to make the world a better place. 

 

A story from the Internet.