Sue

This is a really nice story. Has a sad tone to it near the end, but it's still real good. Brought tears to my eyes.

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One day a teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers. That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual. On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling.

"Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!" and, "I didn't know others liked me so much," were most of the comments.

No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class with their parents, but it didn't matter. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.

Several years later, one of the students was killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so handsome, so mature. The church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the coffin. As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her.

"Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked.

She nodded: "yes."

Then he said: "Mark talked about you a lot."

After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.

"We want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it."
Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.

"Thank you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark treasured it."

All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, "I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home."

Chuck's wife said, "Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album."

"I have mine, too," Marilyn said. "It's in my diary."

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her purse and showed her frazzled list to the group. "I carry this with me at all times, " Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: "I think we all saved our lists."

That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again. The density of people in society is so thick that we forget that life will end one day. And we don't know when that one day will be. So please, tell the people you love and care for, that they are special and important.

Tell them, before it is too late.... Even if you don't make up a whole list, if you can come up with just one nice thing to say to someone, it can make a difference in that person's day. Another way to effect change in this regard is to share this story with others.
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tspikes51

Cool story. Thanks.

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Siege

Read it in my dad's copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul a while ago, but it's always a good read.

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"Your name's Geek? Do you know the origin of the term? A geek is someone who bites the heads off chickens at a circus. I would never let you suck my dick with a name like Geek"

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mbchills

is that where it's from ? Chicken Soup for the Soul? a book?

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rawr.

Siege

Chicken soup for the soul is basically a collection of stories that are from a variety of authors. It's a very popular series. With everything from Chicken Soup for the teenage soul to Chicken Soup for the Grandma's soul.

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"Your name's Geek? Do you know the origin of the term? A geek is someone who bites the heads off chickens at a circus. I would never let you suck my dick with a name like Geek"

--Kevin Smith

This part just makes my posts easier to find

ngdawg

Actually did this as a Valentine's Day project in my son's second grade(he is now 13). The story actually had first appeared in a Dear Abby column many years ago, which is where I got the idea(I was room mother in charge of class parties).
Every child got a list of all the kids in their class, were told to say one compliment for each, then I took them all home and typed out the individual papers on the computer.
The reactions were the same as the story. Many kids, my own son included, had no idea of their value to others. It was a great thing for them to share.
Wonder if he still has his somewhere...

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Slavakion

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/allgood.asp

Snopes confirms this as more than just another chain email.

Sue

Well the point was that it's a nice story, I don't care that it's a chain e-mail.

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zVp

That was a very touching story Sue. It made me quite happier today (I was in a crappy mood but hey, now I'm good after reading that).

That reminds me of all the times teachers ask the whole class to introduce yourself, say a few things and stuff like that.

"Hi... Uh... Erm... My name is... Mike? Uh... Um... I like... Music?"
That was basically my ill-fated attempt to introduce myself. Obviously the teachers cut me short just to save me from my nervousness, which I appreciate. Note that I haven't done the introduction in a while now, but I'm not that shy anymore

... off on a little tangent there. Heh.

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fresnelly

We actually did this in my Grade 7 Home Economics class, but we had much duller results. All the compliments I received were either "nice", "smart" or "funny". Nobody put much effort into the job. One kid even took the opportunity to insult another student. I guess we were either too shy or too snotty.

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Siege

Slavakion was merely pointing out that it actually happened

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"Your name's Geek? Do you know the origin of the term? A geek is someone who bites the heads off chickens at a circus. I would never let you suck my dick with a name like Geek"

--Kevin Smith

This part just makes my posts easier to find

flat5

I took a Dale Carnegie course once. It was part of the course. Unfortunetly, I lost almost everything when I moved to Europe.

Schwan

Great story. Too bad my teachers and school mates were nowhere near that level of emapthy.

Sue

Doh. I wasn't reading that correctly. My apologies.

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gremlinx8

That was a good story... seems like kind of an odd exercise to do in math class though.

Slavakion

Heh, that's okay. I've misread posts more than once.

777

I'm lousey with the compliments. Giving and recieving. But we did do one of these in sixth grade. All the desks were aranged in a circle, and each student wrote their name on top of a black sheet of paper. That paper was passed around the circle, and when it was filled out, would arrive in front of you.

And in my high school pysch class, we verbally complimented the person in the seat next to us. I didn't know the gal in front of me at all, so I had to think of something.
"Nice shoes."

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"I don't know that I ever wanted greatness, on its own. It seems rather like wanting to be an engineer, rather than wanting to design something - or wanting to be a writer, rather than wanting to write. It should be a by-product, not a thing in itself. Otherwise, it's just an ego trip."

Roger Zelazny

texxasco

Great story - and it's nice to hear that it is a true story as well. It reminds me of a similar exercise used by our training staff at an inservice class a few years ago.

Once a year we are required to go through 40 hours of inservice training, and it is there we receive updates on policy & procedural changes, etc. But for the most part it is a boring week. There are what seems like endless classes on defensive & offensive tactics, use of force videos, out dated safety videos, along with a half day at the gun range and some practical exercises as well. What a site to see...a room full of grumpy people, having to set through mandatory classes that challenge one's ability to stay awake, let alone participate with any level of enthusiasm or energy.

I am a correctional officer, and at this particular inservice training, I was in a class with approximately 25 other officers. These people ranged in age from 19 to mid 50's & older. In my profession, it is easy, very easy to become a jaded person, and many bordering on just plain mean. Most though have just become very thick skinned and are not very emotional or open to receiving compliments or giving them either.

On our third day of classes, the instructor passes out a list of every member of the class with space below each name, to each member of the class.

He instructed us to not put out name on the list, but to just wite something nice about each person in the space below their name. He also requested that we not just put some lame statement, or a 1 or 2 liner in that space, but something genuinely positive about the person - and if we didn't know someone on the list very well, or at all... say something nice about what we have onserved in the inservice class, not just comments on their dress, hair, etc. We all had name tags as well, for those that did not know everybody.

It took approximately 45 minutes, but once we were done, the papers were cut up and the result was a pile of comments from everybody for each member. We all went and picked up our "piles" and brought them back to out tables.

Then we were to stand one at a time, and read through the list of compliments we had received - one person at a time. What a difference this exercise made in our class! We are programmed to leave our personal lives outside the gates, and how cool was it to here your peers actually say soemthing good about you. Talk about a morale booster. Prisons are a negative place by design, but many do not realize the effect that working in one has on the staff over a period of time. Now there we were...almost everyone in the room smiling, when minutes before there was hardly a smile in the room. That one exercise changed the dynamics of the class for the rest of the day, and it spilled over throughout the rest of the week as well.

It was a great excercise, and one that I have seen done several times since...and the effect is always the same. I just thought I would share that.

Sue - Great post!

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Strange Famous

ah, I like these kind of stories. was a pretty cool thing for the teacher to have done.

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for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
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Siege

Better than saying something like "nice ass" or something

__________________
"Your name's Geek? Do you know the origin of the term? A geek is someone who bites the heads off chickens at a circus. I would never let you suck my dick with a name like Geek"

--Kevin Smith

This part just makes my posts easier to find

777

"Nice ass" Damn, I should have said that

__________________
"I don't know that I ever wanted greatness, on its own. It seems rather like wanting to be an engineer, rather than wanting to design something - or wanting to be a writer, rather than wanting to write. It should be a by-product, not a thing in itself. Otherwise, it's just an ego trip."

Roger Zelazny