My little darlings

We've had some bullying at school this year. I brought the guidance counselor in to talk to the class. She's amazing and had them in the palm of her hand. She showed parts of a program that Oprah did in a high school. It was pretty emotional. The whole concept behind this has to do with finding out about your peers, because if you really knew them, really knew what hurt them, you would treat them better and wouldn't be so quick to bully, or harrass.
For the activity afterward, they answered yes or no questions. Many of them raised their hands and whispered to me, "am I a middle easterner?" I thought that was cute. One student who actually is middle eastern, seemed kind of resigned to being called an arab by some classmates. He hadn't put it together that that word was being used negatively. He didn't realize it had to do with his background.
I was expecting the girls to be effected by the program. They are the ones who are experiencing this bullying the most. It was the boys, though, that kept coming up to me to talk about it. One very gentle boy asked me if it made me cry. He admitted that he also had tears in his eyes. Another boy, my beloved A., the one who wants to marry me, told the counselor and me that he wrote on his paper about being made fun of. A lot. And he underlined the word a lot. And when he said that phrase, a lot, his voice cracked a tiny bit and his eyes got a little bright. That was hard.
So many times in school we get started with a project, or an idea, and it just kind of fizzles. There's always so much to do and much going on and we're always far behind. I hope we keep this up, though. There's so much work left to do and they'll be leaving me soon for middle school. They're not ready yet. I might just have to go with them.