Doin' what is right....hum....

Today I went on a field trip with two of our fourth grade classes. I've shared the past couple days about how deeply God has been moving in my life, and I sat down on the bus with two of the boys on my caseload. I was VERY excited about the day, as we were headed to Fantastic Caverns in Springfield. It is my favorite field trip of the year with the fourth grade.

We headed out, complete with the necessary items needed to keep the Autistic boy I was sitting with occupied and happy. We started down the road, and suddenly we heard a radio. One of the teachers looked at me, and I just gave her the "I dunno" look. It wasn't coming from a kid, it was coming through the speakers. In my ten years of teaching, I have never had a bus driver turn on a radio. My initial thought was "Oh, I don't like this station." Then again, I listen to the Christian Station, so my secular music knowledge is incredibly limited, so I didn't know what we were about to hear.

We headed down the road and I didn't know the song, but I knew it wasn't appropriate for fourth grade ears. Well, for that matter, it wasn't appropriate for my ears. Then it went into talk radio, and went into stuff that I didn't even want to hear, and so I could only imagine what the kids were thinking. Now, I'm sure many of those kids have heard MUCH worse. However, for those who haven't, I had visions of parent phone calls.

I sat there and prayed. I knew it wasn't right. I also knew that both of the other teachers I was with probably didn't agree but weren't sure if it would be wise to make the bus driver mad. So, I moved forward.

I sat down by the teachers and asked them if they thought it was okay, and I was right, they didn't agree either. Apparently one teacher had already made the bus driver mad, so they weren't wanting to be the ones to say something. So, I went up to the bus driver and said, "Hey, could you turn that down? We're going to have a lot of parent complaints if we keep listening to this." And, the bus driver simply said yes and turned it off. I don't know if she was mad. I don't care if she was mad.

My thought was that I didn't want to be subjected to that stuff, and I didn't want the kids to be either. I had prayed and knew what I was supposed to do. I know it's not saving the world, but I know I did what God wanted me to do. In the end, it was simply the right thing to do. I will always wonder how the bus driver didn't realize it wasn't appropriate for fourth graders, and then again I don't think it matters.

For today, my little people didn't have to listen to junk on the radio that would fill their minds with things they didn't need to hear. And, tonight I will go to sleep at peace because I did what I was supposed to do, instead of just sitting there and staying silent.

Good.
Stuff.