Andy Boucher

“I’ve never really understood the importance of class participation. If I have the knowledge and I can prove that I have it in a test or in some homework, then why do I have to show it off in front of the whole classroom to get the grade? Or worse, if I don’t know the answer, why do I have to humiliate myself in front of the entire classroom just for some points? I just don’t get it. All I can say is that I definitely didn’t want that top spot hard enough to participate daily in every class. Although I gotta say that sometimes I was tempted to force myself to participate just so I could get the teachers off my back. “You have to learn to come out of your shell,” “Don’t be shy, we don’t bite,” “You’re never going to make it in the real world if you don’t talk.” They always used the same old, tired phrases. I knew some of them had good intentions, and maybe they were right, maybe I needed to speak up and participate more, but why did they think it was a good idea to motivate me like that? I’m sure there are other ways to promote class participation without being so aggressive or rude. Public humiliation was not going to magically transform me into someone outgoing like my brother, my parents had already tried that for years with no results. It is the teachers’ job to create a safe space for students to grow and develop, not a safe space for mocking and bullying. By singling me out as the “quiet one,” the teachers basically put a target on my back and gave my classmates permission to mock me for the same reason. And they took that permission by heart. All through middle school, many kids enjoyed bullying me for being quiet—and for other things, like preferring to read during recess instead of playing sports and for my short stature, but mostly it was for being quiet, which is something that I’ve never fully understood. Why did being quiet make me stand out? Shouldn’t it have been the other way around? I used to try to not pay attention to the bullies, but when so many people—including some of the teachers—tell you that there’s something wrong with you, you can’t help but start to wonder if they’re right.”
― Kevin Martz, Introverted Me

“The boldest little girl places her fists on her hips and sneers up at me. "You're too big to be a ballerina."
My arms cross over my chest. "Yeah? Well you're too small to ride the really fun roller coasters."
She sticks her tongue out at me.
I stick mine out right back.”
― Carli J. Corson, It's a Love/Skate Relationship

“We had won 3-1, not that I’d contributed anything beyond cheering from the bench. I wondered if I would ever get to play. I knew how the fire hoses in the glass cases at school felt. They sat behind glass for year after year, a part of the school, but never used. They sat and waited for the day when someone would follow the instructions, “In case of fire, break glass,” but would that day ever come?”
― Mark A. Roeder, Ugly

“I think about it this way. Jesus hung out with the sinners, lepers, prostitutes, and all the other unclean people that everyone else shunned or stayed away from. He went and talked with them when no one else would go near them. Actually, that’s a really good way to piss off the Pharisees in the Bible…go talk to the unclean. But I think going to the unclean is the core of the Gospels, if not the whole New Testament? Jesus accepted people where they were at and he wasn’t afraid of them or what other people would think or say. He took care of them and talked with them. Then he usually forgave them and told them not to sin anymore and move on with their lives.”
― Damien Benoit-Ledoux, Skyler Phoenix