The results of this teacher’s writing assignment will move you to tears.
About eight months ago, Elle Deal decided to try a new writing exercise with her fifth-grade class. At the time, she had no idea this Friday writing activity would have such heartbreaking results.
Elle asked each student in her classroom to write a short journal entry titled, “I wish my teacher would know…” For five of the students, the assignment became an opportunity to share a deep secret with their teacher. Secrets that Elle would carry with her for the rest of her life.
In fact, Elle found five of the student’s writing assignments so moving she took to Facebook to share them with the world.
Her hope was to remind people to “leave this life a little better than how we found it.”
“Kid 1: I wish my teacher would know, my dad is in jail and I haven’t seen him in years.
Kid 2: I wish my teacher would know, I don’t always eat dinner because my mom works and I don’t know how to work the stove.
Kid 3: I wish my teacher would know, my sister sleeps in the same bed as me and sometimes she wets the bed and that’s why I smell funny.
Kid 4: I wish my teacher would know that I don’t always have sneakers for gym class because my brothers and I share one pair.
Kid 5: I wish my teacher would know I like coming to school because it’s quiet here, not like my house with all the yelling.”
Elle is a teacher who spends her life trying to make a difference in the lives of other people. According to Pop Sugar, this writing activity just reinforced some of this elementary school teacher’s beliefs.
“We spend so much time talking and judging what we think we know . . . we need to ask more questions and spend more time listening,” she wrote. “We also need to shift our mindset and see things from other people’s perspective, give more than we get, and live to serve.”
In the eight months since Elle originally posted about her assignment on Facebook, it went viral.
The post has nearly 4,000 comments, over 60,000 shares, and over 41,000 reactions. For the most part, the comments are positive.
One user agreed with Elle that this writing assignment was a great example of why you should never judge someone you know nothing about, “prime example of why we should never judge…we never know the whole story behind a person’s circumstances!”
Several users commented on how heartbreaking the results of the assignment were.
“Breaks my heart.”
“This is hard to know since it is emotional.”
There were even a few users who noted they understood these children’s responses as “they were one of these kids” growing up.
While Elle does not have any recent posts about her writing assignment from eight months ago, she does periodically post uplifting or motivational statuses on her wall.
Sometime after originally posting about her writing assignment on Facebook, Elle updated the post to thank people for the overwhelmingly positive response. She encouraged people to reach out to local schools to find ways to help struggling children. She noted that while she did not want any friend requests, people could follow her on Facebook.
Elle Deal was not the first teacher to use this writing assignment as way to get students to open up.
A few years ago, third-grade teacher Kyle Schwartz also had her students complete this writing assignment to learn more about their home lives. You can see the results of that assignment in the video below.
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