What’s the story about Bonhoeffer’s teenage students dumping trash onto his head?

Bonhoeffer showed great patience with his students and cared for them deeply.

One year, in his home city called Berlin, he was the teacher of fifty young teenagers from poor families. These boys did not want to be in school and gave Bonhoeffer a welcome he would never forgot.

As the children’s elderly pastor led the new teacher Bonhoeffer up the stairs to meet them for the first time, the students dumped wadded-up pieces of paper out of trash baskets onto the adults’ heads. Then the students refused to go into the classroom—just like naughty sheep!—and teased Bonhoeffer by chanting his name rudely, saying, “Bon, Bon, Bon!” Their old pastor threw up his hands and left in disgust.

Bonhoeffer, however, leaned against the wall with his hands in his pockets.

He spoke calmly in a quiet voice to the students nearest to him, congratulating them on the remarkable show they had just given. Then, he began to tell them a story about when he taught children in a Harlem church, a neighborhood in New York City. The chanting soon stopped, and the unruly students were listening. Bonhoeffer promised that if they came back to school, he would tell them more stories about Harlem and play his records of the spiritual songs sung there.

The students did come back! Bonhoeffer knew those kids were all bark and no bite.

Soon, he and his students were like family sharing life together.