Teachers may know a thing or two about it, yet they do not introduce it to the new pupils in the early grades, while some students of higher grades have learned a few things about it along the way on their own... Teammates!

It's not about a sporting event, although it has the same theme, it's not about a school play either, even if we are looking for some classmates to read the same lines year after year, but it is about camaraderie, not only about being a classmate to one another but much more than that - a teammate!

"No child left behind", perhaps, sounds loftier if classmates become teammates. It should be of no surprise that some people we grew up with, attended same class, same school year after year after year end up living their dreams, but it would be of some level of surprise should we elevate those who might end up askew. Eliminating the risks of bad apples among the pupils early would generate a much stronger and a much more efficient background for later, because every child counts!

Teachers have to introduce and emphasize to them, the pupils, the notion of being a teammate, a class with students going on about their daily lives as friends, as people who grow up coping with same problems while in the same institute of studies, as a team who does care about its members. Those who teach should draw the line between becoming a friend and becoming an enemy among friends by uniting the kids and not isolating them.

It is extremely important not to fade inside a class, not to evade but to preside over what's bothering some. You see, if in sports managers bear the grunt and have to leave the team at the end of a bad run, teachers are exempt from that throughout the years, but they should take notice that it is important to hold on, strengthen and reinvigorate, if necessary, their pupils or their students. A shake-up of the team, under the class laws, should mean a shake-up of the events and the issues each of the kids face, so they should face them together, and not grow apart from one another.

It may be a case of "your problem is my problem", because at the end of a season a teammate would learn from one another about life and its issues, and the team, i.e. the whole class would become a stronger environment, a more thriving one.

Salutations and bullying have always separated kids from one another, and teachers have the responsibility to, at least come through in such situation from earlier on, although it's never too late to raise up the subject. Salutations as in "Hi!", "Have a good weekend!, "Bye!" and so on, has always been a divider because some kids have not learned enough about one another in order to co-exist and come through whenever there's a bad situation emerging. Bullying one another, if taught to be a negative earlier on by teachers, would stop being a divider, as well, and kids would have learned not to be afraid of one another, but friendlier to themselves and the society.

Don't be a stranger, if you are a teenager to your fellow teenagers! Teachers, do not impose an ideology on kids, but offer them the possibility and the rewards that come with friendship!

It is better to care about who is growing up next to you, rather than care less about that person, because you'd share so many years in the same class with one another that you cannot turn heads one day and regret you have not known your "teammate" better!

Learn more about this author, Danny Sol.
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