spreading the love
A WEEK AGO I GOT AN EMAIL FROM MY CANADIAN FRIEND, DR. RODGER, INVITING me to something called "Love is the Movement" on Facebook.
What the hell is "Love is the Movement" you ask? And more specifically, why did I have LOVE written on my arm when I went to teach a 4th/5th grade combo class of about 50 kids today?
That's exactly what the kids in my classroom wanted to know. So before I had them dive into a language arts assignment in which they had to copy edit a paragraph riddled with typos and then rewrite it in cursive, I took about 13 minutes to explain just why Mr. Bob had LOVE written on the inside of his hairy forearm. Here's what I told them:
"Last week a friend of mine sent me an email describing this cool idea someone had. The idea started because someone realized that around Valentine's Day every year lots of people get depressed. In fact, studies have shown that something like one in every five teenagers will at some point suffer from depression.
"Think about that. That means out of 55 kids in this class, 11 of you are likely to suffer from depression at some point.
"And there might be all kinds of reasons why you suffer from depression: things are tough at home...kids pick on you at school...you're feeling lonely...no one ever listens to you. I, personally, felt very depressed at certain stages of my teenage years.
"And Valentine's Day tends to trigger depression for a lot of people. They might feel bad because they don't have a boyfriend or a girlfriend or anyone who listens to them. And if you're a teenager, Valentine's Day can be especially hard.
"So someone came up with the idea to have as many people as possible write the word LOVE on their arm. As a way to let all those people who feel sad and lonely on Valentine's Day know that there are people in the world who love them and care about them and that they shouldn't feel bad. It's a way of showing support to the people—especially teenagers—who might be feeling bad around Valentine's Day."
I went on to talk to the kids about the importance of having compassion and I taught them the concept of empathy. And while I was in the middle of my talk, the most amazing thing happened. Nearly every kid in the classroom reached into their desk and grabbed a sharpie. Within minutes almost all of them had written LOVE on their arms. Some of them on both arms, their hands, even their shoes.
It was a beautiful thing to see. But I also felt a disclaimer was necessary.
"Listen, you guys," I told the class. "I think it's awesome that you are spreading the love. But I don't want you to go home from school today and tell your parents—'Mr. Bob told me to write LOVE on my arm.' I was simply sharing my story with you about why I had written LOVE on my arm. So it's important that you're able to articulate and clearly explain why I did it."
Before long what became clear is that for the 40+ kids who'd be telling their parents why they came home from school with LOVE written on their arms, there'd be 40 different versions of why Mr. Bob had inspired them to write on their arm with a sharpie. Like 40 different versions of the old game "Telephone."
"What are you gonna tell your parents tonight?" I asked the kids.
"We wrote LOVE because teenagers are depressed."
"Valentine's Day makes people sad and this will help them."
"Eleven kids in our class will be depressed when they get to high school."
Geez, I hope I don't get fired for this. But I gotta believe that somewhere amid the LOVE and compassion lecture and various moments of innocuous misunderstanding, something positive was sinking in with some of those kids beyond the ink that had temporarily tattooed their arms and clothes on this glorious 13th day of February.