Everything that has ever happened affects everything that will happen. You are shaped by your memories, experiences, community, environment, and interactions with other people. Teachers, students, parents, and administrators, all are affected by the past. It is important to reflect on this because we cannot truly know understand what is happening in each person's present without acknowledging how they are affected by their past.
Students who have been let down by past teachers can let their experiences affect present their relationship with education or authority. Parents that have had negative experiences with schools can carry over prejudice into their present. Teachers that have struggled with particular students may give up before getting to know the next year's batch. Inversely, students that have had coaches be their cheerleaders, parents that have had tremendous help and support in shaping their children by schools, or teachers that have received presents and gratitude from their students may assume the best in their future students. By asking questions, using empathy, attempting to know each others' past, and acknowledging that each new day can welcome a new positive experience, we can use the present to disrupt past notions of negativity.
All people need positive experiences to feel happy about their situations, and those positive experiences will give way to brighter futures. Breeding negativity only perpetuates into future negativity.
