We, Us, Our: Lower Schoolers and the Election

As Kindergarten families experienced just this morning, there is something about singing together, that stays in your heart long after. That is why, to mark the wonderfully historic occasion of Americans’ selection of a new president, the lower school gathered together (last Wednesday) to sing. We sang This land is Your Land, Common Thread, and My Roots Go Down. We sat and listened together as the president-elect told us in an excerpt from his speech about the 106-year-old woman voting in Atlanta, how much of America’s history she’s lived through, and how much that meant to her. We noted the absolutely clear message that all of our students, of every shape and size, of every beautiful shade of skin, of every texture of hair, and of every type of family, with any name – no matter how it is pronounced – can grow up and be whatever they feel called to be. They can be president. Or an artist, or a scientist, or a writer, or a teacher, or whatever they would like to be.

Phil pointed out Barack Obama’s inspiring use of the words We, Us, and Our, throughout his victory speech. “What does that mean to you?” Phil asked our students. (Please ask your child what that means to her or him, because in that big assembly, they did not all get a chance to say out loud!) Several students got a chance draw what that means to them, and two examples from second grade, worth a thousand words of course, are just below my note.

Also below if you scroll down, you will see a note from Dawn describing this year’s Penny Harvest effort. A timely example of We, Us, Our in action. I am so proud of the LREI students leading and participating in this effort to support those in need. The Penny Harvest works by “converting [children’s] natural compassion for others into action by collecting pennies and turning those pennies into grants for community organizations.” Sounds to me like a formula for the alchemy that eventually prepares students to be active citizens in a democracy. And I’m looking forward to seeing in what other ways we are inspired to show what We, Us, and Our mean to us together.

Warmly,
Namita