Andrew Johnston

I love watching this video. As a teacher, I would meet kids who’d been bullied from an early age when their perception of things was so limited that they actually took stock in what their bullies would tell them and it became the foundation of how they viewed themselves, more so than what their parents or other loved ones would tell them. It was very difficult in their Junior year of high school to praise their work and encourage them to share their talents because they had developed a shyness or self-consciousness that was incapacitating. Usually, I didn’t know exactly where it came from but as I met with their parents and discussed it, it seemed that more often it was not coming from criticism in their home but from their peers or sadly, their teachers at school. And usually, their parents could identify a specific classmate or teacher that in their formative elementary school years had repeatedly criticized them enough that the bullied believed it fully. I was really inspired when Simon asked Andrew how he responds to bullies at school and he said, “I carry on singing.” And I love his smile.