It's a rite of passage for a fifth grader: the Fifth Grade Program, We The People. Golda has been practicing at school for this for many weeks. I knew it was important to her, so Scott and I were looking forward to it. When the kids marched in wearing their blue jeans and red shirts, I inexplicably got a little choked up. Little did I know, I'd be in tears for the duration of the show. At one point, the tears were tears of laughter. It was a song about vikings, and the kids did a little growl in the chorus and scowled at the audience. Golda, the little actress, totally worked the scowl-and-growl. Every time she did it, Scott and I doubled up laughing. By the time the program progressed to the Civil War, however, I was choked up again. The students did a great job of portraying the agony of the slaves and the courageous decisions Lincoln made during a perilous time in our history. Looking at the diverse studentbody was enough to fill me with gratitude for leaders like Lincoln who followed divine guidance while leading the nation. The real tear jerker was the medley of military songs, during which veterans and soldiers from each branch of the armed forces stood up in the audience. There were quite a few grandfathers standing, humbly acknowledging the applause. Who knows what sacrifices those among us have made for us?
Patriotism is not my strongest emotion, but I sure felt it tonight. There is nothing more encouraging than the leaders of tomorrow singing with confidence about our past. The fifth graders in our school know and value American history, and that is the greatest hope we have for the future. Those ten-year-olds believe they could solve all the world's problems over an uncrustable and a glass of milk. With their confidence, I believe it too, and I hope someday they do.
5 comments:
I can't believe how much Golda has grown up and blossomed. What a beautiful little girl. I can picture her doing the growl just like she did the head bobbing in the nutcracker. She was the best at that by far too!
Girl you can write! I just love reading each and every one of your posts! It sounds like such a great evening, it is amazing what our kids learn and retain. I hope they can do all that and more!
Hey! Did you see Liz creer visited Tif's blog? Small blog-world!
More great writing. Does give you a dose of hope just reading about it! And who couldn't use more of that?
c's choir teacher put together a program like that. Sadly, I was not that excited to attend because it had been quite a busy week and we hadn't been home many of the nights, but I hope I never forget it. It was marvelous. I appreciate teachers like Golda's who have the gift of teaching history with emotion so we can learn the good from that past and hopefully skip some of the mistakes. 3 Cheers for Golda!
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