Sincerity

I am beginning to wonder if sincerity is a lost emotion among our youth. Heck, sometimes I wonder if it a lost emotion among adults.

I recently had a student who said some awful things about a teacher and thus was removed from school and sent to me. Part of his "curriculum" with me was to write a sincere apology letter to every staff member (he came from the alternative school so he needed to write 5 letters). We talked about what it means to be truly sincere. He then sat down to write his letters. One stated, "I know you feel what I did was wrong, but I don't. I'm sorry anyways." Yeah, really sincerity there!

He was then upset when I told him he needed to write a letter to "R." He was mad because he had never had "R" as a teacher and he didn't feel he needed to apologize to "R." I explained how the EOC is a small pond. When someone throws a stone into their pond, the ripples effect everyone, therefore he needs to apologize to everyone. His letter to "R" read, "Even though you are not my teacher and you won't be my teacher, I was told I still have to apologize to you. So, I guess I'm sorry." Give me a break?!

I took his 5 letters down to the school. The secretary and I had a good laugh over the student's "sincerity." The student council read the student's letters and came to the conclusion that the student was not sorry for what he did, and thus would not be let back in. His lack of sincerity cost him his education. He has burned his bridges with the other school districts and will not be let back in. His lack of sincerity cost him his high school diploma. He decided to go for his GED.

I think the adult world has lost the true meaning of sincerity as well. I think we sometimes are good at acting sincere, but I often wonder if it is truly sincerity or just an act.

We have some inner office drama. My office is 7 women and 1 man. I am often excluded from this drama because my personal office isn't in the same building as everyone else. I am grateful for this! It seems that the women can act like bratty middle school girls. They gossip and can be catty. Well, we recently adopted a new office policy in hopes of eliminating hurt feelings, etc. One person decided to call me this morning and try to make amends. She has never hurt me emotionally (or physically for that matter). I have to wonder if she really did want to touch base with me or if she wanted to make herself look good. I am often the one female my male boss will come to when there is catty drama. Since I am not physically in that office, I am often called to be the impartial 3 party who gets to handle the drama. I have to wonder if she was calling to truly touch base or to just make herself look better in my eyes since the most recent drama revolved around her.

So how do we restore sincerity in our youth? Our kids? As a parent, I want Taylor to truly be sorry for whatever transgressions he may acquire in his life. How do I instill sincerity within him? I know it starts by me being truly sincere in my life. I must be a role model for him, but in a day and age when sincerity about anything seems to be flying out the window, he is bound to know insincere individuals. We can surround him as much as possible with good people, but in the end, we can't force him to be sincere. Who knew raising well rounded kids (that won't end up in my program!) could be so hard! :)