Counselor Johnson

Like many of you, I am having to choose to take time away from social media because scrolling through the images and people's comments about them can be exhausting, heart breaking, and consuming.  As we get more emotional and angry, it becomes all we can think about and talk about.  These are, however, important issues to be talking about and thinking about.  They are also important to talk to your children about.  Especially our white children.  Black families have been talking to their children since a very young age about what they should do/not do in order to be safe.  They have been having conversations with their children.  But, it's time for us white folk to step up and talk to our kids, too.  The children are our future.  If we can raise a better generation, maybe things will be different.  Maybe a change can be made. So, how do you talk to your kids about racism and violence?  Our instincts say to shelter them from all of the evil in the world.  Our instincts say to

“Melissa, stop. You’re making people mad. You’re going to lose friends over this. Just keep your thoughts to yourself.” Ask any black person you know how many times they have kept their head down and their mouth shut so that they don’t make people mad. Especially people in authority. They’ll tell you about those times and they’ll tell you about the time(s) that they couldn’t keep quiet, too. This is a time I couldn’t just be quiet.  My calling, my purpose in life is to educate others and if you don’t know that about me, well, you just don’t know me. I don't just educate children at work, but I educate children at my church. I educate parents. I educate other educators. I educate friends and family. I also spend a great deal of time educating myself and learning from others. I don’t delete or block people that disagree with me or challenge me, because my heart wants people to learn and see things differently when they read the words I write or the things I say. I don’t hate those

From Friday, May 30, 2020 The Psychology Behind Rioting From Your Friendly School Counselor Last night, I sat here talking to my husband about trauma and racism and police brutality and rioting and looting and I cried. I went to bed with a heavy heart and tossed and turned and couldn’t rest. I finally got up and went to sleep in the other room because I was so restless and I knew he had to be up at 5:30 this morning for work. This morning, I woke up with tightness in my chest as I immediately felt hurt for the people of this world. I looked at these pictures of what was my home city (Louisville) for more than a decade and I sobbed. The link to these pictures is in the comments.  I want to say upfront that I am not condoning, justifying, or encouraging rioting, looting, or violence. However, I do want to encourage my white friends to be empathetic. To try to understand it. To try to imagine what it might take to push you that far.  I teach my students several lessons on empa

From Thursday, May 28th, 2020 “Jesus loves the little children. All the children of the world. Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight. Jesus love the little children of the world.” I grew up singing this song in my all white hometown surrounded by great examples of Christian living. Love others, help those who are less fortunate, and work hard were all values instilled in me through the many adults in that hometown (family, teachers, church members). I went to a high school where there were no people of color. I went to church with only white people. We didn’t travel much as kids and there was no internet or social media back in the 80’s and 90’s. My only exposure to black people was on tv (Bill Cosby, Fresh Prince, Family Matters). In my history classes, I learned that the slaves were freed after the civil war and I learned a little about Martin Luther King, Jr. and that black people had the same rights as we do. They could vote, own property, work for a li