It’s Gonna Be Okay!

By Dr. Marcia Davis-Dawkins

“It’s gonna be okay, Mommy!” These were words of comfort from the mouth of a five year old. This is a message that is so profound – it sends peace, hope, trust, reassurance positivity and love. There are so many days when I feel discourage, but those words give me the will to go on. It tells me that I have hope for the future, hope for unfulfilled dreams. Aristotle once said, “Hope is a waking dream.”

HOPE

In the classroom,there are many students who are hopeful, but aren’t even aware of this hope, or they don’t understand that there is hope. They might not be able to read or even understand a math problem, but with encouragement and a pat on their shoulders, teachers are sending a message of hope. This is telling them that even though things seem bleak, they can learn to read one day at a time with proper coaching.

As educators we never know how much of an impact we have on students. We might be the only source of inspiration because we provide an atmosphere of calm and serenity. The majority of them know that we have their best interests in mind. Our experiences as educators taught us that students gravitate towards us when we all them to feel wanted in our and years after they will still reflect on some of the experiences in the classroom. We present the epitome of promise for some students who have documented struggles at home – lack of parental guidance, lack of functional home environment, abusive homes, overcrowded homes and other factors that are not conducive to learning. But with encouragement we can detect the gleam in their eyes as the school year progresses and they gain understanding of the material in the curriculum. Educators can be pessimistic at times, but when we measure the success stories against the disappointments, we will find that they vastly outweigh each other.

Hope is spelt out a student I taught Math in 5^th grade a few years ago. When this student entered my class all I could hear from her was how much she disliked Math and I told her I would get her to change her mind about Math. With the correct coaxing, coaching, and differentiating she left my class feeling more positive and hopeful about the subject. Fast-forward five years later I heard from this student that she was taking Advanced Proficiency Math! You can just imagine my face beaming with pride!!

Hope sends the message to a student who has failed a test, to pick himself/herself up and try harder for the next test. This student stays motivated and can do self-talk, because the positive message is being reinforced daily in the classroom. “It’s gonna be okay,” is the affirmative mantra we all need to adopt!