Little Things Matter

I was quite amused yesterday at the firestorm on fb created by the various opinions regarding the muffing of our Star Spangled Banner. People were whipping out the ol’ “stones and glass houses” bit. Others were digging in and not letting go. I must say I am one of the people that dug in and I find it amusing that people tend to lose their ability to be objective when they can’t berate someone into adopting their point of view. I have an opinion and I am going to express it. If it causes someone to delete me/de-friend me, well, I have no control over it and I won’t lose sleep over it. But I am not rehashing that today.

What I realized through this entire hullabaloo is that sometimes it’s the little things that matter. I have stated previously that I am a patriotic person by nature. I tear up during the anthem; I tear up when I witness a fly-over; I tear up any time I see soldiers walking down a concourse at the airport with people waving flags and signs welcoming them home; I tear up at the Stock Show Rodeo in Fort Worth when Bob Tallman goes through his monologue that ends with the presentation of Ol’ Glory (that is something to put on your bucket list before he kicks his). I am emotional and I am not afraid to show it.

Today in class while talking through a video about Irish immigrants and the role they played in our factory system back in 1847ish, I realized that my students needed to understand that they were living this experience today in 2011. With a different set of immigrants. They need to get this. They need to see that history does indeed repeat itself. It cycles over and over again. I asked the kids to consider, without speaking, if they had witnessed any group of people born outside of the United States willing to work at laborious jobs for meager pay. Light bulb after light bulb illuminated my darkened classroom. (On a side note - we never just “sit” in class and watch a video. If I am using a video, it gets stopped and started lots of times for me to point out things they need to remember or to offer an opposing viewpoint to what is being presented) Unfortunately, I believe a majority of our kids are undaunted and unphased by the “world” around them. They don’t look past their immediate social experiences. If it’s not facebooked, xboxed live, or tweeted, kids don’t take an interest. Sitting down and watching a 6 o’clock newscast and figuring out how Egypt might affect their life is a foreign concept to kids; literally and figuratively. I crave every day in my classroom to reach out and shake my students into “getting it” and realizing that they are living history and they need to embrace it. (But since I love my job, I will only metaphorically shake them.) Little things matter. And in this case, the little things will one day be big things.