So many great quotes for young children, but one I like particularly says:

"Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them" by Lady Bird Johnson, Former First Lady of the United States.


I have a story to go along with this quote.

A few years ago I was teaching Junior High kids. I was the Special Education Study Skills teacher. I didn't have large classes and I loved what I did. I am not an old fashioned traditional teacher. I am however, a little old school in that I give respect when it is earned. I expect manners. I will never treat a child wrongly and everyday is a new day. We leave what happened yesterday at the door. Anyway, I had a Hispanic 8th grade student whose name was Carlos. Carlos got into trouble a lot, didn't like to do his work, and just had a history of being a bad student. Well Carlos came into my class right off the bat thinking he was gonna be in control. I gave him an assignment to do and he tells me "No." I told him excuse me he then told me I didn't like him and it is was because he was Mexican. I immediately put that nonsense to rest and told him that I could not be racist because I was half Korean and half Black. Nothing in me was racist, cause I ain't got time for that. He stood there confused cause he didn't know how to react. I just laughed and told him to sit down. After that we never had issues, as a matter fact we had an understanding.
Well he did not have it that way in all his other classes, as a matter of fact another of his teachers, really disliked me because I could get this student to do work for me but not in his class. And he ranked high on the totem pole with the district, so his ego was a bit high too. Anyway, Carlos comes into my class one day fuming mad. He sits down, and slams his books down on the desk. I went to him and asked him, what was wrong. He told me that the teacher told him to get out of his class and that we would never amount to nothing other than a garbage man.  Now I was just irritated. Adults should no better. But I went to Carlos and told him not to worry cause as a Garbage man he makes more money than him as a teacher so take it as a compliment. He looked up at me like I was crazy. I just laughed and told him to go look for himself. In the back of my room were these ancient dinosaur like computers. They worked and got the job done, so he went back and looked up what I told him. When he was done, I swear to you it was a new kid. To this day, he is in High School and doing better.

This is an older kid, but what we tell our kids, they believe. We have to feed them positive things so they will be the great people someday. If we believe they are great, they will. We should believe that our children can be whatever they wan to be.  I feel this way about all kids no matter the age. If we start young they have a better chance at greatness not matter what others try to tell them.