Two Powerful Words

I got very frustrated today with one of my students in the after-school program. He had a bad attitude, rushed through his homework (on which he had several mistakes), and refused to learn how to do his work correctly. I tried reasoning, I tried listening, I tried teaching; yet all of these failed. So in frustration, I got up, told him I wasn't going to help him anymore, and walked away. The thing that made me the most upset was his apathetic attitude. He didn't care if his homework was wrong, or he didn't understand how to do it; he just wanted to get it done. About 1/2 hr. later, I was upstairs in the building and this young man came up to me and said, "I'm sorry." (He went into a little more detail :) It was kind of funny how instantly my whole outlook on the day changed. Those 2 words, spoken with genuineness, moved something deep inside of me. It's kind of ironic, because he's a kid and can say those words after thinking about something for a mere 30 minutes, while I'm an adult and still find it very difficult to say them at all.

Happy Halloween!