How To Light Up A Student's Face

A colleague, Thomas, who teaches history was on hall duty, which meant he sat at a student desk in a hallway to make sure students at lunch did not enter academic hallways.  I paused to talk, and as we chatted, a young man approached him.  The student had a smile on his face, but I did not recognize the language he was speaking.  Thomas, however, replied in his language, and after a few minutes explained to me that the young man was from Jordan.  He and I then shared a few words in English, and he informed me that he had been in the United States for one year.  The student and Thomas exchanged some more in Arabic, and then the young man went his way.

I asked, already suspecting the answer, whether the young man were one of Thomas's students, and he said no.  He went on to say that he had exchanged a few Arabic words with one of our Iraqi students and that each day she has brought one or two more Arabic-speaking students to meet him. 

Chills ran along my arms.  You should have seen the smile on that young man's face and the light in his eyes.  He had sought out my friend, who was not one of his own teachers, because Thomas spoke a bit of his language, and when they had their exchange in Arabic, it was obvious that the moment made the young man's day.

Thomas has served as a missionary, which is how he has picked up several languages and is undoubtedly why he has such a heart for people.  You may not speak another language, or at least not one spoken by some of the students in your school.  It does not matter.  When you become involved in the lives of students, when you talk to them about what is important to them, when you ask questions about their activities and interests, you are speaking their language.  And when someone speaks their language, there is a shared moment of humanity that lights up the faces and the hearts of all around.