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"Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for building up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear." - Ephesians 4:29
Reporter Mark Di Ionno, in an opinion piece for the Star-Ledger, shares a story about attending a Little League game where he heard parents lamenting the prevailing problem of gossip among junior-high students. Not that gossip is restricted to youth by any means, but it stirred Di Ionno's memory of one, now deceased, Mr. Buschi, a Spanish teacher he had in high school, whose warnings about gossip have stuck with him all his life. While there are no religious attributions in the article, and the lesson is a more a philosophical one, the truth behind Mr. Buschi's warnings are worthy of passing along.
Students gossippingRecalls Di Ionno: "I had a teacher who used to say, 'You can always tell a person's intelligence by what they talk about. Smart people talk about ideas. Stupid people talk about other people.' The line was Mr. Buschi's variation of a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt: Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. And I've used Mr. Buschi's 'smart people, stupid people' theory many times over the years, telling it to my kids, no matter what side of the gossip they were on."
"Whatever he [Mr. Buschi] meant," adds Di Ionno, "it stuck with me all these years. It became one of my favorite quotes, a natural companion to one attributed to Richard Nixon, 'When celebrity replaces knowledge, there are grave implications for the future.'"
So, to all you teachers out there wondering if anything you teach comes across to your students and is lasting, there is hope.
Used by Permission of Breaking Christian News www.breakingchristiannews.com / Source: Mark Di Ionno - The Star Ledger
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