Teaching hope: EMPOWERMENT

The first story I chose which I think is important for everyone is story 137. This talks about how this one kid named Charlie was being severely picked on by his peers. They were calling him an "idiot, loser, or freak". His father was in prison and his mother abandoned him. He was out crying to attention and doing stupid things and earning himself suspensions. This teacher decided to start a reading/writing program with journals. Just like every other journal writing story in this book, once people were able to listen to Charlie's side of his story, they were able to relate to him more, and instead of being a freak, or a loser he was not relatable to people and they no longer called him those names.