Don't Worry, Be Happy

I haven't posted much lately. This is due to my life being so crazy lately. What with trying to shop and decorate for Christmas I've also had to squeeze in many music practices lately. I've attended one concert already and have one this weekend and one next weekend. Today was our last day of Seminary for the semester - WOOHOO! Besides trying to get the students Christmas gifts ready for the last day, we also did a class picture. But another thing that has kept my mind occupied has been an altercation between some students. It's one of those "he said this" and "he said that" kind of things. But ultimately it caused one boy to come to me last Monday and say he was not going to come to class anymore and wanted to join Home Study. At first he wouldn't tell me what started it, so I have learned bit by bit until finally I have figured the whole thing out, and sadly enough, it actually started about a month ago, maybe more. One of the boys made a comment in class, which another boy took as a racial slur. It was not a racial slur, and was not directed at the second boy, but the second boy took it as a racial slur against him. Now I agree that the first boy should have immediately said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that the way it sounded, please forgive me" but he didn't. I was there and heard the comment and I should have made him appologize. All I did, when the second boy tried to start up an argument was hold up my hand and tell them to stop, knock it off, and get to work on their assignment. Now this has escalated to parents being mad and going to my supervisor and their bishops. Yikes - why did I want to teach one more year? So now my teaching partner and I were informed today that we have to be the ones to fix it. So now, because we are into the Christmas break, we will have to try to get the 3 boys together- yes there is one more boy but I never have figured out how he is involved - and try to work this out. We were informed this morning that we need to get them together more informally and not make a big deal about it, and try not to focus on the problem, but to work it out so all are happy. Maybe we should just get the 3 boys and all sit on the floor and hold hands and sing, "Kumbahyah".