CHAPTER 3 : SECTION 3

“I got a carrot/I got a yam/I got a green bean fresh, not from a can/Got a potato as you can probably see/I also got a pea/I got a pea/I got a pea/Why is everyone laughing at me?/So if you find a little pea on the floor after I leave/I think it probably belongs to me.”


Kight, the 6th and 7th graders Humanities teacher, was trying something new today. “Hey guys! This is going to be our new way to transition between things here in class. Verses having me shout out the time left to find your seats, I will just play this song. It’s 2 minutes long and so when you hear this song, you’ll know that you have to be in your seats by the time it’s over.”

Kight continued, “Alright, today I want to continue and build on the discussion we had during KIVA this morning about First Amendment Rights. What I’d like you to do is watch this You Tube video I found. Now before I play it I want you all to know that you are going to see some words in this video and they are derogatory words that are used to describe a group of people. Remember how we talked last week about the “N” word and how this is not a word that we use to talk about African Americans unless you are an African American and in that case, it is up to you. Well, it is the same for these words that you will hear today. There will be a “F” word and a “D” word that will be used to describe a gay person. These are not words that we use to describe anyone that is L, B, G, T, Q, or Lesbian, BiSexual, Gay, Transgender, Queer, unless of course you are L, B, G, T, Q where again, it’s up to you. There will also be a word to describe a woman that starts with a “W” and the same goes here. Alright.”

The You Tube video began. “God Bless the USA” played in the background while images of military funerals flashed on the screen juxtaposed with images of the protestors and the signs that are held at these funerals, which was where the words that Kight warned the children about came up. “Thank God for 9-11” said one. “God Hates Gays” was another.

A woman appeared, a spokesperson for the protestors and she began to explain that the deaths of all of the military men and women were because God was punishing our country for being too lenient on what they say is such a clear defamation of God by allowing gays in the military. They believe that all of the natural disasters and terrorism attacks were happening for this reason as well. 9-11, Katrina, you name it.

Then Kight stopped the video, “Ok. I know that was hard to watch for some of you, but this is what I want you all to do. I want you all to think about what this woman said and I want you to pretend you are her. I want you to get out your journals and I want you to write one sentence from this woman’s point of view.”

Comments came flying from around the room. These kids were obviously dismayed at this woman. After all, it is a social justice school.

“I know this is going to be hard for some of you who disagree with her, but if you can’t write from her perspective, how can you have a debate? You can’t go on and believe things just because I say it, or just because your parents say it. You need to develop your own ideas and part of that is imaging why she thinks the way that she does. There are students here at this school that may agree with her. To debate her, you have to see her side.”

“I was born knowing gay rights were civil rights,” said a boy.

“Well, that’s great that you know that, but I can tell you when I was in 6th grade there wasn’t one, not one other student that believed gay rights were civil rights.”

The children gathered in groups of 4 and discussed different ways to say what the You Tube funeral protestor was saying. Then they all went around and read aloud what they thought this woman was saying.

“Ok, why are we doing this?” Kight asked. “Here are some numbers for you. 1 in 10 people are gay. Out of this ten, two thirds will try to commit suicide. Half of these attempts will succeed. Let’s do the math.” She wrote a succession of numbers on the board. “You can bet that one student in your school right now will be successful in their suicide because they are gay. You guys have the ability to change this statistic. If you find out that someone is gay, they need your support and acceptance more than they need your ridicule whether you agree with their lifestyle of not. You may save someones life. So again, why do this? Well, it’s way harder to see this woman’s side. It’s easier to just say I hate you. That won’t get us anywhere. We need to attempt to see both sides of an issue to accurately discuss it.”

I’m sure I looked like a deer in headlights. Kight was amazing. She was so fluid at getting these children to think and examine an issue that they will surely come up against at some point, probably many points, in their lives, and it would start right in high school when teens tend to start to examine this aspect of themselves. Kight, who was openly gay, was able to get these kids to see both sides of an issue without causing fear or anguish within the kids, just by simply making them think.

The next section for the day was about the Underground Railroad. There was a chart on the board full of sticky notes under the title, “What I Know About the Underground Railroad” that the students had put on the day previous. Today there was a new chart titled, “Questions about The Underground Railroad.”

“Ok. We’re breaking into groups again.” Kight gave the students a number 1 through 3. “1’s you go with Betsy.” Betsy was the Humanities assistant to Kight. “2’s you go with me. And 3’s you go with Jeannie.”

What? Me?! Somebody spotted my fly on the wall self and shooed me down! I sat on the ground with my 4 commrades, Jordan, Diedra, Dennis and Saul.

“Ok, so what do we still want to know about the Underground Railroad?” I asked.

“Ummm... Were there slaves that weren’t black?” This was from Jordan, a very eloquent and well spoken 7th grader.

“Was there actually a railroad involved?” asked Diedra.

“Did other southerners help the slaves beside the Quakers?”

“What kind of food did the slaves eat?”

“Yeah, and like, what kind of games did they play?”

“Did the slaves ever get to retire?”

I was writing frantically.

The students were asked to return to their seats at the same time I realized I had spent almost all of my allotted time for two class visits in this one class. I couldn’t help myself! I was so enjoying class! Kight is an amazing teacher! Although, when I passed the classroom later in the day, I saw the second half of the class that I had missed. The kids were all decked out on the floor with books, the same book. “Elijah of Buxton,” a book about a young black child during the days of the Underground Railroad. The children were following along as a book on tape played in the background.

I was left with a feeling of empowerment, with a euphoric fuzz in my brain. Social Justice should not just be in a school here and there, it should be mandatory within every school’s curriculum, of that is was suddenly convinced.