Sunday night, like I do every night, I checked in on Ollie before I went to bed. He had gone to sleep a couple hours earlier and was laying there peacefully. I leaned in to complete the nightly ritual of telling him that I loved him, that I’m proud of him, and that he is my special little guy. After kissing him on the forehead, I added, “I’m going to make you proud of me tomorrow.”
The next day, Monday morning, my presentation of Chelsea Clinton’s book, She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World was presented to my school’s community during an assembly. This presentation was in recognition of International Women’s Day. I started thinking of this presentation last year after presenting President Obama’s book, Of Thee I Sing as an inter- disciplinary presentation. I knew I wanted to do a similar project again. I was considering doing Obama’s book again but with different students and songs. However, I had the feeling that it needed to be different next year.
Then something happened on 2/7/17. Senator Elizabeth Warren refused to stop speaking against Senator Sessions nomination by the 45th to be District Attorney. Senator McConnell in response, while describing Senator Warren’s actions, uttered this important phrase, “nevertheless, she persisted.”
This phrase became rallying cry that immediately filled me with pride and respect for Senator Warren. Chelsea Clinton also heard these words and was inspired to write her children’s book, She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World, illustrated by Alexandra Boiger. As soon as I heard of this book, I knew this was going to be my follow up to Of Thee I Sing.
I followed the same format as the Of Thee I Sing presentation. I was going to have eight speakers representing different parts of the school, reflecting the diversity in our school. I felt it was important that our students see men and women of different races and disciplines celebrate women. This allows our kids to understand that men celebrate women and that math teachers value literature and reading too. I tied in different disciplines from around the school to bring this presentation to life.
The presentation was bookending by four senior girl singing “She Persisted” by Drew Fornarola.
Our 3rd-5th grade extracurricular choir honored Claudette Colvin with a rendition of “If You Miss Me From the back of the Bus” popularized by Pete Seeger.
The upper school Advanced Wind Ensemble performed “Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30,” a tone poem by Richard Strauss to reflect on Sally Ride’s space exploration. A group of 7th grade students created a video talking about the life and work of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Our JK students were featured in a wonderful video describing how they would show support and stand with Ruby Bridges as she integrated her school, William Frantz Elementary School. In reflecting on Helen Keller’s accomplishment, one of the high school choirs performance of “Through the Dark” by Andrea Ramsey, which sets Helen Keller’s writings to music. Also, I featured a video of one of Florence Griffith Joyner's record breaking sprints. We were fortunate to feature Elise Paschen, who is an alumni and parent of our school to speak about her mother Maria Tallchief.
In the weeks leading up to the presentation, I wrote out the script and created a powerpoint presentation for the assembly and got all of the projects organized. I got together a fantastic group of adults in our community to speak, and found others who were willing to help run the presentation. There was a rush of work and emails last week to put together this presentation and them last Saturday night, I was done. There was nothing else for me to do.
For the presentation itself, I was an audience member, sometimes cueing speakers but mostly sitting back and watching what I had put together. There were times that I smiled, cried tears of inspiration and felt great joy looking back at the audience full of students and my colleagues’ coming together to celebrate these amazing women.
It’s hard being away from my kids, and I’ve tried to explain to Ollie what I do when I’m not with him. Being able to do this kind of work makes it easier, because it means that I can tell him honestly, that I'm making the world a better place in a small but meaningful way for him and his brother.
This project was extra. No one asked me to do it, nobody expected me to put in the time, but I see the world. I see the struggles of women in my life, in the world and I see men who don't get "it," and continue to support the sexist status quo. I can't sit back and do nothing. That's not an option. There's too much at stake. There were times late at night, trying to pull all of this together, when I though about how much easier to just cancel the presentation. But word I typed, every email I wrote, I felt the spirit of these women, and I persisted.
I'm not sure what is the project for next year, but it will happen, it will celebrate diversity in our world, and it will inspire myself and my community, and make my son proud of me.
Resist.
Persist.
No comments:
Post a Comment