A truly remarkable teacher

Today's crumb is adapted from a Reader's Digest article by Glennon Melton. She writes about a teacher who is unique. Every Friday afternoon, she asks her pupils to take out a piece of paper and write the names of five classmates they'd like to sit next to next week. She also asks them to nominate a classmate as Citizen of the Week. After class is dismissed, she studies these pieces of paper. She's not really designing a seating chart or an award. She's looking for students who are not requested by anyone else, or who are never noticed enough to be nominated, or who had lots of friends last week but none this week. She's looking for lonely children.

She quickly discovers whose efforts are unappreciated, and who are falling through the cracks, or who are bullying or being bullied. She knows children who are not noticed may eventually resort to violence to be noticed. She finds patterns and uses these to break the codes of disconnection. How long as she been doing this? Ever Friday since Columbine.