Sometimes a single sentence from a child can give you hope for humanity. I am profoundly grateful for these moments, especially when it sometimes seems like the world is wielding a firehose of divisiveness and intolerance, aimed directly at our faces and set to endless jet-blast.
So now, in the month of June, a month to honour and listen to many communities, I’d like to share one such moment with you.
I was working with a multilingual language learner. It was always a joy to observe this student during lessons. He moved through the day on a seemingly endless wave of energy and positivity. Everything was an adventure, everyone was a friend, and he was always the first to help others who looked like they might be having a tough time.
In this particular month, his teacher was reading a series of picture books to the class, representing many different types of families. Every time I visited, this student was thoroughly enjoying the read alouds. Since he spoke Albanian, I tried to find some of the titles in his home language, as well as other languages of the school community. I did manage to find some family-themed books … but I wish I could have found what appeared to be some of his favourites: the ones we were working on today. Once he found out I’d be working with him on those, he strolled over contentedly to see what would happen.
It was a sorting activity. Students were asked to compare the families in each book by sorting similarities and differences on a Venn Diagram.
Venns are great. Love it when these are a part of student learning. Today, as I sat next to my bright new student, I watched his eyes light up as we looked at the books again together, and then settled in for the task. I read his teacher’s cut-out English sentences aloud (sometimes translating if necessary) and watched as he expertly took the square of paper and placed in on his sheet.
‘Family lives in a house.’ Where does this go? He slid the sentence with his finger over to the Family A circle.
‘Family lives in an apartment.’ Where does this go? This one went to the Family B circle.
‘Family has a cat.’ They both did, and he plunked the sentence squarely in the middle where the circles overlapped.
It went on this way, and my stack of sentences got smaller with each question I read.
‘Family has a mom and dad.’ Where does this go? He slid it to the correct circle instantly.
‘Family has two moms.’ Where does this one go? Done.
‘Family is full of love.’ Where does this one go?
He snapped his head up and looked directly at me.
“What are you talking about?” he asked. The change in expression and tone was so abrupt, it took me aback. He had been nothing but upbeat and engaged through the entire unit.
Did he misunderstand the question? Was my translation off? Was he making a joke? Was he talking about something else entirely?
I stopped, uncertain of what he would say. He waited a moment, and then said in exasperation, “ALL families are full of love!”
And with that he shook his head, as if he couldn’t quite believe his teacher would ask such a ridiculous question and placed the sentence perfectly in the middle.
Happy Pride.
