Empathy -- It's hard sometimes

My school has received about 8 students whose families fled Hurricane Ike. They had planned to stay here until the storm was over, but with the orders to not return in place they enrolled their students here with us. One of the students is in second grade and was placed in the classroom next to Jack's class.

After school, as we were going home Jack started to ask questions about Galveston and tell me about the new boy in school. Jack said he was mean, but after some questioning it turns out he just plays rough and pushes in the line. I can only assume he saw this at recess and his friends from the other class told him the rest. Anyway, it came up in conversation that the boy had toys in his backpack. Jack said that when the teacher told him we didn't bring toys to school, he started crying. Instead of making fun of him, the rest of the kids left him alone and gave him time to collect himself.

This led to the discussion of why there were so many toys in the boy's backpack. I brought up the possibility that maybe his parents told him that he could take anything he wanted to when they left the house, but it had to fit in his backpack. Jack had a difficult time with this. We talked about it, and when we passed the recreation center where these families were staying I pointed out that's where he was. Again, Jack had a hard time with this. The conversation went on and after awhile Jack said, "I guess maybe he's mean because he's scared. Maybe he started crying because he thinks someone will steal his toys at the center." We talked about giving the boy some time to adjust and how to deal with him if he pushes again, and then that was the end of the conversation.

When we got home, he got ready for football practice and I left him so I could help Caroline get ready for dance. When I went back in to check on him he standing in his room looking around. Thinking he was looking for something specific I asked him if I could help him find something. He replied, "No. I was just trying to decide what I'd put in my backpack if we had to leave in a hurry."

Wow! He really does understand now why the Hurricane was such a big deal.