So, most days in my classroom begin with a Morning Meeting where I sit with my class and we greet each other and share about what's going on and whatnot, but yesterday, I started it with a story....and I told this to my students, quite frankly, because it's a story from history I've been thinking about and if you go up to a group of adults and say, "I have a story from history that I've found really interesting and I'd like to share it," the adults will look at you weird and wonder why you didn't get all your awkward out of your system in junior high......but second graders will look at you, like, "yes, I love it when Ms. Haines does this," and hang on every word. Which is why, even when I wish they would just be still and work with whisper voices, I love second graders. Anyway......
"So guys, I wanted to get to share too, today, and what I have is a story I've been thinking about a lot the past couple of days, and the reason I've been thinking about it is because I've heard a lot of adults talking about how bad things are in the world and how some people can really be very mean and hateful and do mean and hateful things, and how it can seem like all the mean and hateful is getting worse. And thinking about that made me a little sad, and then it reminded me of this story. So I'm going to tell you the story and then tell you what it means to me.
So, this is a true story about Benjamin Franklin. Remember, we watched the video about him, and he was the guy who flew the kite and invented the lightning rod and the special glasses and ran the newspaper. Well, Benjamin Franklin was there when they signed the Constitution. You know, that's the paper that starts we the people and helps us to have or rights to be free. Well, the thing is, when the people were working on writing the Constitution, they were actually doing a lot of fighting. Not fighting like with weapons or fists, but fighting with their words...arguing. And they were all closed up in a little room together and wondering if they could make America work. And a guy came up to Benjamin Franklin and asked him, 'Mr. Franklin, do you really think this country can work? And so, in the room where they were doing all this arguing had been hanging a picture of a sun, and Franklin told the man, 'Do you see that painting? Artists, when they paint the sun, can't make it so you know whether it's a sunrise or a sunset. You can't tell, but I want to believe this is the sunrise of our country.'
So here's why I'm telling ya'll this story. Things were hard when America was just getting started and there were some really bad things going on, and Benjamin Franklin could have just said, let's give up and go home. But he decided to have hope. And that's how I hope you see bad things, because every time there are hateful people or bad things, I think there are also good people working to help and that it's important to see them, and I think that story is maybe a little complicated for you to understand, but I believe in looking for sunrises and not sunsets, and I think, even when there's lots of bad things and mean people, you can still look for the good stuff."
Anyway, just something I shared with my kids. I love that story. For more reasons than I could really articulate to second-graders. And it's something that's been on my mind.
