"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our
deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our
darkness that most frightens us."
--Marianne Williamson
When we ask of our students, "Who do you want to be?"
we often get answers like, "rich, famous, professional athlete,
singer…" Why not ask them who are you not to be?
It is of no service to the world or oneself to pretend to be too
small to make a significant impact. There is no magnitude
in shriveling into minute insignificant wisps because we are afraid
that our light will be too powerful for others to appreciate and receive
well. Enlightenment is not about diminishing each other and
ourselves. The younger the child is the more they embrace and celebrate
and believe in their light and genius. They focus on it, create and
sustain it, they play with it and cherish it. They honor and protect it.
But somewhere along the line, they also lose it. We were born to
light this world and to share our genius with each other. It is our
purpose. And when one of us accepts our own light, love, and genius
within, we can begin to open the way for others to do the same. Being
fearless requires pushing forward with all of our light and abolishing
self-doubt.
On this, the 13th anniversary of the September 11, 2001
attacks on the US, we look back to remember. We look back not to
dwell in the darkness of that day, but to study the light and the hope that
manifested within that day. As a 5th grade teacher, it is a difficult
task to teach such a tragic and personally significant topic to children who
weren't even born yet. They don't have the heart-wrenching connection
that kids do who were aware of the events on that day. But nonetheless,
empathy is something we can teach. So we read stories, watched
video clips that were age and school appropriate, but we also talked
and shared concerns about why this happened and how we can help it from never
happening again.
Still, I pondered how to teach kids who were either not born yet
or just, how impactful 9/11 was and how important it is that we remain humbled
and grateful, vigilant to changing the world for the better, and steadfast in
our charge and commitment to creating a world of compassionate genius.
9/11 can be a tricky and scary topic to teach kids. They need to
feel safe in their world while still made aware of the potential dangers. I
need to be careful to keep it objective…maybe?
What is it that I REALLY want
them to take away from these learning experiences? I started to see personal
stories from surviving family members of victims of 9/11…maybe those could be
our reading passages? But then again, I didn't want to focus on the sadness of
that day…
I pondered on….
So my decision…I taught it through letter writing. I wanted my
students to write letters to their future selves. To the leaders, the thinkers,
the inventors, the changers that they will be. Thank them for the changes in
our global culture…conceptualize the world they WANT and DESERVE. Thank the
future "them" for the compassion and peaceful world they created.
Thank them for tolerance and celebration of difference and uniqueness. Thank
them for believing in human potential, human kindness, and love. I wanted them
to see the world they want not only in their minds and written words but also
in their hearts. I wanted them to conceptualize and hold fast to that image and
feeling of having the world they will create, if only we just give them the
chance.
I don't want them to be a generation of letter writers about how they
lost someone in an attack. I don't want them to be a generation of letter
writers questioning why this continues to happen. I wanted them to write
letters explaining how and why they were the generation that figured it
out…that changed the world…that created the world we've tried to destroy.
You may say I'm a dreamer (yeah yeah yeah I know the lyrics)…
but I DO believe in the genius of kids. And if we, with all our
cynicism and jaded judgment, can listen and learn and get out of their way…to
just love them and show them HOW to love each other by learning to LOVE each
other too…we might just get this ball rolling…..I do believe it is THAT simple.
CHOOSE
to matter. Because, in fact, YOU do.
Here are some of the resulting
letters from 5th graders who have begun to see the glimmer of their light and
the possible impact of their contribution to the world.
Dear Future Self,
Thank you for learning how
to control your temper. In fact, all you have control over is yourself
and your reactions. Learning this has helped our world become more peaceful
because when you don't get upset others don't get upset either. This
helps people who have sadness in their hearts believe in a more powerful emotion:
hope. Hope is so important to keep alive. Hope is the change and
LOVE is the way we give hope to others. Thank you for always being an
example of this.
D. C.
Dear Future Self,
Thank you for working hard
and studying. You have accomplished your dreams and the world is
better for it. Through your work as a medical researcher, you have not
only come up with years of advancements in cancer treatment, but after
persevering through failure after failure, you've found a cure! You have
shown people to never give up on their dreams and that
with perseverance anything is possible.
N. A.
Dear Future Self,
Thank you for helping to
create a world where special needs people are included and treated fairly.
Thank you for creating an organization that everyone wants to be a
part of because everyone is included and loved. Thank you for
giving special needs people a chance to share their genius and light with the
world. Because of your example, you have changed the world for every
person.
A. Y.
Dear Future Self,
Thank you for feeding hungry
children by collecting canned food and making sandwiches. No child should
ever be hungry and because of you, no child who ever has known you has
ever gone hungry. You may not have changed the whole world, but you
changed the world for those kids. Thank you!
A. B.
Dear Future Self,
Thank you for becoming a
police officer who doesn't just make sure people follow the laws, but who helps
them to not break the laws again. Police officers can be a lot like
teachers. They can teach people how to be better. They can give
them resources and show them better ways of thinking. You have been
a great example of how we can use our passions to create a more positive world.
C. D.
Dear Future Self,
Thank you for impacting
other children by listening to them and allowing them to be who they are.
You have tried to experience every person's story. The rich,
the poor, the black, the white, Christian and atheist. You have
given everyone a chance to share who they are and made them feel like they
mattered. This changed the world.
J. O.
Dear Future Self,
Thank you for keeping
kindness in your heart and the respect you have. Thank you for living in
love and never forgetting that you matter to the world. You never doubted
yourself which is why you accomplished more than you ever thought you could.
Thank you for not giving up on us.
A. C.
Dear Future Self,
Thank you for becoming a
scientist. Your contribution to children around the world who cannot
afford care and medicine has created a world where no child dies from
illness without a fighting chance. Your work is important.
Your work matters.
E. B.
Dear Future Self,
Thank you for building a
community park where the homeless can safely go to find shelters that
are nice and make them feel like they are home. Thank you for
putting in a garden that feeds the homeless while they are there.
Thank you for giving them a chance to grow things in the garden so that
they learn that they are important to this world too. You have made a
difference in their lives.
J. V.
Dear Future Self,
Thank you for becoming
a veterinarian and rehabilitating rescued animals to be used as service
pets for children who are sick, people with special needs, elderly people, and
prisoners. Animals are friends and they make people feel good and calm.
They can give children hope, help people with special needs feel more
accepted in the world, give elderly people someone to be with when they get
lonely, and can help give prisoners hope and a purpose so they won't feel
like they have to always be a prisoner. You are very special and the
world is a better place because of you.
S. M.
Dear Future Self,
Thank you for learning to
sing and using it to sing lullabies to babies who are in the NICU.
They need joy and they need to hear happiness. Your voice in giving
babies who are born early a chance to live.
M. Y.
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