In the wake of Martin Luther King Day, I sit in our breakfast nook and reflect. After all the life changing work he did for this country in terms of equality and rights, what would he truly think of it now? Have we kept his dream alive or is it a distant memory? Ponder that.
Just six days into 2021, our Capitol building was stormed. I didn’t receive news until midday and since my students are so young, none of them brought it up right away. We had our regularly scheduled staff meeting that day as the events continued to unfold in Washington D.C. There was less talk about the scheduled line items and more talk about the emotional health of our staff and student body (one of the many reasons I love my site.) The following day, a Thursday, I held back tears saying the Pledge of Allegiance. As I watched my little 2nd & 3rd graders carefully say the pledge through their zoom session of morning announcements I couldn’t help but think about the country they are growing up in. Before the age of 10, they lived through a global pandemic, experienced social injustice and unrest throughout their country, watched two heavily divided political parties try to make their opinions known, and now...their country’s Capitol had been violently besieged. What is going on in their young minds?
That Friday, after regrouping myself and taking advice from a peer, I showed a read aloud of the book entitled “The Breaking News” by Sarah Lynne Reul. In kid friendly language, the book addresses the emotions kids might feel when overhearing daunting current events. Afterward, we had a great social emotional check-in on how they were feeling and what emotions they had been working through. It’s easy to think kids don’t feel the unrest going on in our country or to forget that they may have anxiety too. Now, moving forward, each day when we say the Pledge of Allegiance I will be reminded that I am teaching the future of America. Our next generation of politicians, doctors, lawyers, scientists, activists, artists, mothers, fathers, are in my hands. To some, my job may be all fun and games. To me, I’m making an impression on our future and because of that, I take my position very seriously.
I will continue to reflect each time we utter the word “indivisible.” In a time when our country feels more divided than ever, or at least more divided than I’ve seen in my lifetime, how do I help nurture students to not only know the basic differences between right and wrong, but eventually use their voices for the common good? This is likely a question I will continue to ask myself until I retire from teaching.
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