As Muhlenberg South Middle School in Greenville, Kentucky, moves into a new facility, Principal Brian Lile wanted to provide a message of encouragement to students. “With mental fitness and social emotional learning being buzzwords right now in schools, and even more so since COVID, every time I listened to Matthew West’s song Truth Be Told, I kept thinking, ‘I could do something with that thought on our steps.’”
“So we started with his Lie #1, Lie #2, on the steps; Lie #1 being that you’re supposed to have it all together, Lie #2 everybody’s’ life is perfect, except yours. And then we added some more lies going up the steps.” Then on the door in large letters, “it says Let The Truth Be Told - and then as students go up the next flight of steps, it starts to say ‘You are special,’ ‘You are worthy,’ and gives them the truth about themselves. And at the very top that’s what it says, ‘And that’s the Truth.’”
“You know our kiddos now, not just here in Kentucky, but everywhere, they’re still battling self-esteem, self-confidence, trying to get it where it needs to be, and unfortunately, we’ve got a lot of students who don’t get the positive that they need,” so the 21 steps of encouragement are something students will see every school day.
In our full podcast interview below, Principal Lile shares his heart for young people, acknowledging that “everything’s not always rainbows and butterflies,” but there are ways to make a difference.
Starting the walk up the Truth Stairs...
And then...
