By Derrick Brown (follow on Twitter @dbrowndbrown)
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Reaching Out … While Respecting Boundaries (Part 2) (1412 Words)
(58th and 59th Days of School – October 29–30, 2025)
By Derrick Brown (Join Our Mailing List!)
I. The Systemic Circle
<SNIP>II. The New Sheriff and the Old Town
<SNIP>III. Boundary Crossings and Verbal Battles
The past few days also surfaced a string of “boundary crossings” … small, insidious moments that reveal how respect has eroded into rhetoric.
Each exchange began with words that should have been routine … and ended with words that should never have been spoken.
MM2, BG … then Wednesday 10-30-2025 with EG, (this one hurt … because it showed that we are far away from our 8-7-2025 listening session).
MM2 continues to wrestle with the concept of authority.
Her defiance has evolved from eye-rolls to overt verbal combat.
BG has followed a similar trajectory.
Both appear unburdened by fear of consequence.
Their language is casual, but the disrespect is deliberate.
These interactions drain energy that should be reserved for instruction.
The exhaustion is cumulative.
Then came EG.
That encounter hurt differently.
I once saw reflection in his eyes … during our August listening session when we discussed peace and patience.
On Wednesday, his words betrayed that memory.
He is concussed … and perhaps carrying deeper, unseen burdens … but even that context cannot excuse the venom that now passes for communication.
I cannot diagnose his pain, but I can feel its projection.
I mourn what we had.
On Thursday, OP and IM added their names to the list.
What began as a simple correction … turned into a debate about tone and entitlement.
Both are “confident” and charismatic “mouth runners” conditioned to interpret accountability as insult.
Their attempted back-and-forth was not rage … it was recreation.
Talking back has become a sport.
In each of these exchanges, I confirmed a new phenomenon … students who are not overtly profane or violent … who have no disciplinary records … yet who are profoundly disrespectful in their speech.
They mistake debate for dialogue … insolence for intelligence … and familiarity for “equality.”
It is not anger that animates them.
It is delusion.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
What fills these hearts is confusion about who deserves respect … and why.
IV. The Classroom Cauldron Cools
Amidst this turbulence, a quiet shift has occurred.
The “classroom cauldron” that once boiled with chaos has begun to simmer.
Even my greatest “murmurers” paused in silence as OP and IM crossed lines they themselves have learned not to approach.
Their stillness revealed an unintended success … they have learned boundaries by witnessing others break them.
The classroom now contains a fragile equilibrium … not peace, but awareness.
There was also light in the margins.
I introduced the game SET to 3A … JahA, JL, AMO, and MM.
It forced me to learn this new version myself … since the one I loved has been discontinued.
We stood shoulder to shoulder at the large ViewSonic board, solving together, trading logic instead of insults.
The proximity created engagement.
It was learning by presence.
That brief moment of shared focus was worth the noise that followed.
It reminded me that intellectual play is still possible when respect is maintained.
This followed our successful Uno tournament earlier in the week, which had ended with JT’s victory … and laughter that felt clean.
These structured games have become microcosms of grace … spaces where order and creativity coexist.
When students are invited to compete with rules, they learn that boundaries are not punishments.
They are permissions.
V. The Weight of Words
Still, the recurring “mouthiness” from so many quarters signals a deeper social shift.
We now educate a generation that equates unfiltered expression with authenticity.
To them, restraint is hypocrisy.
Correction feels like oppression.
The classroom becomes a courtroom … where each student plays both lawyer and defendant.
I have tried to replace punishment with conversation … but conversation requires mutual humility.
Many of my students lack it because they may have never seen it modeled.
In this environment, my insistence on respect appears obsolete.
I am no longer competing with ignorance.
I am competing with normalization.
Sometimes I let fools go.
Sometimes I let fools know.
Sometimes I let them go once it becomes clear that they cannot be made to know.
The discernment lies in deciding which response preserves my peace.
VI. The Teacher’s Dilemma
The older I become, the more I recognize that each year of teaching demands an exchange.
The job offers influence … but drains vitality.
What used to feel like calling now feels like conscription.
The only sustainable defense is distance.
Boundaries that once protected students now protect me.
I am aware that these may be my last days in the classroom.
It is not bitterness that guides this thought.
It is survival.
Leaving may be the final act of respect … both for myself and for those who no longer know how to learn from me.
I would rather exit with grace than remain as a cautionary tale.
Yet the decision carries sorrow.
Teaching is not simply what I do.
It is how I understand the world.
But even purpose requires preservation.
The only effective boundary against the “new normal” of verbal disrespect may indeed be departure.
VII. Conclusion — Still I Rise
I keep writing because writing remains my resistance.
Reflection converts frustration into framework.
The act of documenting what others ignore transforms despair into data.
<SNIP>, nor can I unhear the echo of casual contempt in students’ voices.
But I can choose how to respond.
To reach out is still my nature.
To respect boundaries is now my necessity.
These two truths no longer compete … they complete each other.
The grace that once overflowed … must now flow within channels I construct.
Those channels are narrow but navigable.
As I watch the room empty at day’s end, I remind myself that exhaustion is not failure.
It is evidence of effort.
I remain grateful for every student who listens … for every colleague who cares … for every moment of quiet understanding that survives the noise.
This is the work.
To keep reaching … even when respect feels foreign … to keep respecting … even when recognition feels distant … and to keep writing … because silence is surrender.
Selah.
(The "Follow The Leader (changED - Volume 2)" Audio and Video Album / Mixtape is also available at TeachersPayTeachers.com)
(The "changED (Volume 1)" Audio and Video Album / Mixtape is also available at TeachersPayTeachers.com)
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I am a “standup storyteller.”
I fuse rap, spoken word (poetry), oration (traditional public speaking), singing, and teaching into messages of hope, healing, and change that I write, direct, and produce to help people who help people.
Everything must change - and stay changED.
Tradition begins and ends with change.
Change begins with me and the renewing of my mind ... then continues through efforts to effect small-group discipleship (equipping others to equip others) with audiences that respect and embrace mentoring, mediation, and problem solving as tools of change.
I am the product of my mentoring relationships, peacemaking (and peacekeeping), and problem-solving ability.
My education began when I finished school.
After school, I enrolled in a lifelong curriculum that includes classes in ministry, entrepreneurship, stewardship, literacy, numeracy, language, self-identity, self-expression, and analysis / synthesis.
My projects execute a ministry that has evolved from wisdom earned through lessons learned.
I want to share this wisdom to build teams of "triple threat" fellows - mentors, mediators, and problem solvers.
We will collaborate in simple, powerful ways that allow us to help people who help people.
I now know that power is work done efficiently (with wise and skillful use of resources, interests, communication, and expertise).
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