Kinsie Johns is a third grade teacher in Lithia Springs, Georgia. She’s also the kind of teacher who makes me want to go back to third grade!
Kinsie Johns
After learning that one of her students was being teased for her hairstyle, Kinsie stepped in where other teachers may have just let the kids “work it out for themselves.”
The little girl was sporting a style known as “space-buns,” which led to her classmates and peers calling her “space-girl.”
Kinsie came alongside her student, and together they devised a plan to put an end to the name-calling.
“She told me yesterday that some students were making fun of her hair and picking on her,” Kinsie wrote on her Facebook page. “So, after a little planning with her and a written reminder on my hand, today, we showed up with the same hair just to prove a point.”
She said she wants all of her students to know that “it’s okay to be different.” Then quoted Dr. Seuss writing, “Why fit in when you were born to stand out!?”
Kinsie Johns
Kinsie could have never expected that her support for her student would catch on like wildfire.
“The little point I was trying to make turned into a huge support for my little friend. All the girls in my class are wearing their hair in ‘space buns’ and even some of the boys got involved! They all wanted to support her and we even got some second graders involved!”
The third grade teacher could have turned the other way, or scolded those who were making fun of the student. Instead she took a sour situation, and found a way to turn it around.
In a world where too many kids are bullied for too long, and suffer silently into depression, mental health struggles, and even suicide, it’s a blessing to know that this teacher was able to have a positive impact on all of her students.
Cheers to you Kinsie Johns! You are building up the next generation of #WorldChangers.
P.s. the original “space girl,” Carrie Fisher, would be proud.
