What I have seen in society today is that everyone has a problem with the truth. I don't mean that we lie all the time, but we are always afraid of hurting someone's feelings or getting involved in some sort of confrontation with the person we are talking to or even better. With which we are living. Sometimes we worry about someone's reaction to us so we twist the truth or try to figure out what that person wants to hear. It really starts to become a problem in personal relationships when couples are afraid to express their desires for fear of breaking up or divorce. People may have a problem with the truth at work, when a supervisor may be concerned about the employee's reaction to a poor performance appraisal. In education, a teacher may be concerned about the reaction of a student or parent, and may easily give grades that do not match the student's performance.
When I was in high school, my mentor called me to his office and took my grades. He said, "What do you want to do when you're in high school?" I told him I didn't know, and then in the next breath, thinking I had to tell him something other than the truth - that I wanted to be a bartender, I told him I wanted to be a lawyer. "A lawyer," he said, pointing to my ranks. "These are not lawyer ranks. If I were you, I would start thinking about something else. I walked out of his office." And at least I didn't go down without explaining myself first and foremost. Didn't you say. You know? This guy really told me the truth, and the truth set me free. That I hadn't worked hard academically for my first three years of high school. I began to think realistically about my future. He told me the truth, and I admired him.
Well, in 1977, my dad sold the bar, and I became a teacher that year. I really enjoyed reading. I was a special teacher. Many of my students had academic or behavioral problems. In fact, my students usually had the worst behavior problems at school and could really reach me in a few days. But overall, I have a relationship with the kids, and it seems like things are always going well. As I progressed in my career, I noticed that things were changing. I was expected to have more and more behavioral problems, and everyone was giving me some excuse to deviate from the child. The catchphrase that was in vogue almost 20 years ago was, I really like this kid, but I don't like his attitude. Was that true I don't think so Is it really possible to like someone and not like their behavior? The truth is, we don't like this person because of his behavior, and people need to think about it and make him aware. One person has his behavior, and the two cannot be separated. I can give you the names of people who are known for their absolute deviance in society, and you tell me if you like them, but not their behavior. Let's try Charles Manson, Scott Peterson, Jeffrey Dahmer, or even Adolf Hitler. Can't anyone like their behavior but still like them as human beings? No, we don't like their term. Our perception of a person is based on his or her behavior. The truth is that if you don't like the attitude then maybe we will dislike this person. People need to know that if their attitudes do not change, others will not want to have meaningful relationships with them, and ultimately will not like them.
Recently a student came into my office (I was working as an interim principal) and started talking to me about what he wants to do after finishing high school. He wanted to be a doctor, which is a great goal for a young person. Well, I asked him what he scored on his SATs. He told me that he scored about 400 in each section. I was thinking in my mind that a perfect score on each section is 800, and a very good score would be around 650 to 700. I knew something then and there. He will not be my doctor. I went to get her grades and saw that her math and science grades were C and D. I definitely wanted to answer the same question that my mentor asked me. Do they look like doctor's degrees? But, based on the principles of culture and society, I could not ask this question. I immediately directed this student to the admission requirements that colleges have for their pre-med program, and ultimately for medical school. He discovered the truth for himself, and came back to me and thanked me for helping him understand that his study skills needed to be improved, and he was able to retake the college boards and
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