b is for...

today we were a part of history in the making. all of us. at my school, as well as at countless other places, each student and staff member, from kindergarten up, were afforded the opportunity to watch barack obama get sworn in as the 44th president of our united states of america. i didn't think that it would affect me as much as it did. in truth, i was expecting having to redirect my young charges to pay attention to words that they didn't understand, but would greatly affect their futures. i am so proud of them. they proved me wrong.

all morning long, i sought out teachable moments to insert what we would be watching at noon. our language arts consisted of the letter 'b.' our whole group reading passage was about the life cycle of a butterfly. i walked them through the laying of the eggs to the birth of the caterpillar to the mysteries of the chrysalis to, finally, the emergence of the butterfly... and butterfly, my friends, begins with 'b.' we talked alot about change. about how miraculous it is that a beautiful butterfly started out it's life as an egg and then a caterpillar.

"what else begins with b?" i asked. hands shot up! 'book! brain! blue! ball! (ha, i'm not making up up the sequence of words) brown! birthday!' i quickly wrote their answers down on chart paper. finally, after running out of space, another five-year-old hand shot up. i had forgotten to write 'rock.' "but rock doesn't begin with 'b,'" i explained and began making the 'r' sound in comparison to the 'b' sound. said five-year-old got a little frustrated with me and pointed to the picture on the weekly reader of barack obama. "yes it does," she said. "rock bama. our president. he's gonna live in the white house. you said so." ha, yes, i said so.

thus began our comparison of 'rock bama' and the butterfly. i think the lesson was more for me than it was for them. we talked about how 'rock bama' was going to help people be safe and to be treated fairly. hands shot up. "like dr.martinlutherking,jr.! (one word) he helped people be treated fair no matter what color their skin was! so we can all be friends!" it was a proud moment in this kindergarten teacher's life- they made the connection that there are people throughout history who are willing to help us all. these people are catalysts for change. they are like beautiful butterflies.

as we watched the inauguration on tv, the kids were fixated on listening to aretha sing a song that they knew. they watched our next president and vice-president stand before all and make a promise to help heal the hurts and to make a change in our world. they looked around at all of us adults who were shedding tears of joy... as we were looking at their beautiful faces and silently praying prayers of hope. they didn't understand how monumental this moment was. or maybe they did. after it was winding down, one of my young charges asked me, "ms. h? is it over yet.?" i just smiled at him and exclaimed, "no. it's only the beginning." at first he looked confused, but then he broke out into a huge grin.

it was a great day. and i learned that 'b is for rock bama.' rock on, barack!