A video of a PE teacher in Georgia fixing a little girl’s hair before a basketball game has taken the internet by storm.
Teachers have been inspiring people for years with their ability to ignite the minds of children with a passion for learning, to be a support network to kids whenever they need it, and for making the long, hard school days a LOT more fun!
Jonathan Oliver is a gym teacher that fills all those roles and doesn’t stop there with his passion for helping kids out.
There is a lot more to teaching than what appears on the surface.
Where people can see what they’re doing in assemblies, at games, dances, and meetings, what they aren’t seeing is the long hours spent pouring over paperwork, or the stress they feel while trying to create a realistic way for kids to achieve the arbitrary requirements in place to meet “National Standards”.
People also don’t get to see a teacher’s personal bank account draining so they can get the things to make lessons fun, to go on field trips with, or to bring that extra flare to one of the student events they’re organizing.
When you stop to think about all a teacher has on their plate at any given moment, the fact that they will put all that aside to give their attention to a kid for even the smallest of things is pretty inspiring.
That is exactly what Jonathan Oliver, fondly known by his assistant as “Coach O.”, did when one of his students asked him to help her with her hair before her basketball game started.
Without giving it a second thought, the kindhearted coach knelt down so he could swoop little Kristen Paulk’s hair up into a ponytail.
When his assistant coach, Kandice Anderson, saw him taking the time and care to gather Kristen’s hair and gently tie it back for her, she decided to pull out her phone and secretly record her colleague’s simple act of kindness toward his student.
Anderson then proceeded to upload the video to her Facebook page with a caption that said it all.
“When your job goes beyond teaching… #CoachO #Love”
The moment the video was uploaded it began going viral and has now reached over a whopping 3 million views!
For Coach Oliver though, doing one of his students hair didn’t strike him as a big deal in the least.
The PE teacher has several kids of his own at home and is no stranger to playing hairdresser for his darling little girl whenever she needs it.
So, when adorable little Kristen walked up and asked her coach to help her out it seemed perfectly natural to him and he wasted no time in getting the job done for her so she could go play her best.
Asking her coach to do her a quick favor and help her tie her hair back before the game was a no-brainer for little outgoing Kristen.
Just like the coach was familiar with doing his daughter’s hair on occasion, Kristen is also used to her own dad helping her with her hair when her mom is busy with something else.
Clearly, she and the coach have a tight relationship, because she knew all she had to do was run up and ask him and he would do what he could.
After the video stole the heart of the internet, Coach Oliver and Kristen’s mother appeared on Good Morning America where the coach told the audience how shocked he was that the video had received so much attention.
“It was shocking to me that it got that much attention because we all do it.”
When asked what she thought about the interaction between Coach Oliver and her daughter, Kristen’s mother said she found it “cute and touching”, explaining that Kristen was totally comfortable asking the Coach since her Dad often helps her put her hair into a ponytail.
She is certainly right, the video is without a doubt one of the sweetest and most touching on the internet.
To watch a full grown man in the middle of trying to coach a game to stop at the drop of a hat to make good on a little girl’s request just goes to show how much school teachers really give of themselves to their students to keep them happy and healthy, and ready to learn.
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