My Adopted Motto

"Take every opportunity to Love yourself. Not only will your body heal, but the outer world will immediately manifest that Love in ways that you could never imagine.

Love really does ‘heal’ all.

Remember…

Love manifests Love. And knowing that…then we also must remember that fear manifests fear.

Love yourself."
- Trish Withus
(There Is Only Love- see her blog on my favorites list!)

I met Trish Withus a few years ago and the message of her book, "There Is Only Love", made such a deep and long-lasting impression on me. So much so that I "stole" her motto and message and made it the "theme" of my classroom. I teach third graders and they are just at that perfect age of reasoning and accountability.

Typically, teachers have their students write a list of three to five rules for the classroom on the first day of school. I found that three to five rules are not very interesting or easy to remember for many kids. I decided to just have one classroom rule, "There Is Only Love" and then I added "And if it isn't love, it doesn't belong."

On the first day of school I have my students brainstorm a huge long list of rules. They are so very good at coming up with them! After all of their words are on the board I draw an umbrella with "There Is Only Love" written on it and ask them to select all the rules that fall under this idea. They are always amazed that all of their rules fit under this one theme. So, whenever there is a problem or conflict in our classroom, all that needs to be asked is "Is it love? If not, change it, fix it, or let it go because it doesn't belong in our classroom." I love the power of love when it comes to disciplining my class. I really don't do much disciplining, most of the time all I have to ask those who are misbehaving is "Is it Love?"

Just the other day, two of the little girls in my class were having a quiet disagreement about something when a little boy in my class sitting nearby leaned over and I heard him ask them, "Hey, is this love? Remember, there is only love!" I couldn't help but smile to myself.

On another occasion, I was fighting a headache and my impatience and frustration with the lack of attention my students were exhibiting was about to get the better of me. One of my students burped really loudly and I snapped at him. My students went silent in shock. They never hear me raise my voice (I just don't believe in it unless there is an emergency, but not out of anger) and here I had gone and broken the one rule of our classroom. I suddenly realized all the implications of my error and in that split second it felt like time had frozen still with all 25 pairs of eyes glued to my face trying to read my expressions and predict what would come next....suddenly a smile burst across my face and a collective sigh of relief came from my students. I started to laugh then and they joined in with me. I apologized for snapping at the student and they all said "It's ok Miss Sutton." Then one of my students said matter-of-factly, "Yah, if it's not Love Miss Sutton, you need to let it go!" Oh, the beauty and wisdom of children! Oh, the power of Love!