Yesterday I was working with an incredible group of students.
"So what is it in your community that makes you feel sad, frustrated, or disappointed?" They set off thinking. I played classical music in the background as they poured their sweet 4th grade hearts into answering the question. The room with filled with a quiet reverence. They mulled over that and many other questions regarding community and their role in it.
"Pssst..." The silence was interrupted. A young girl in the corner calls me over and waves her hand ferociously indicating that I bring my face closer to hers. "I don't want to write down what makes me sad about my community. I'm kinda nervous."
"Ok, can you tell me what it is and then we can talk about how to make it easier for you to write your thoughts?"
Hesitation.
"Shootings. Shootings make me sad and disappointed in my community."
She looked up at me with so much hope as if to think that somehow I was going to tell her that those shootings weren't real. That while she was in this safe place, where things like that couldn't hurt her, that those other things didn't exist. But there was nothing I could say to make her reality less real. Nothing.
"I know honey. Those things are sad to me to."
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