Black and White Hands
Kenneth Nalls
Interest: Marketing and Motivation. Student of Life-Long Learning, Blogger walkwithgodthejourney.com
My cousin, an elementary school teacher, loves her job. She is careful about what she does and says to her students. The children express themselves more freely. Often, their ideas are out of the box and show keen insight.
She tells the following story. A classroom teacher has many responsibilities. I accept that responsibility. I went to school to study and prepare to be an elementary teacher. Each day, I look forward to helping mold the minds of my students.
In college, I posted a saying by Ben Franklin on my corkboard. I aimed to live with his words: “Tell me, and I forget. Teach me, and I remember. Involve me, and I learn.” My end game was to involve the students in the fundamental points of the learning lesson.
One day, after class was over, I walked one student out. I held the hand of a seven-year-old black student. He said to me, “You and I are different.”
I was not prepared for this, but I knew that inevitably, one day, the subject of race would come up. Before I could speak, he said, “Your hands are bigger than my hands.”
With that, he ended the discussion.
It’s always hard to explain why young people understand the solution and don’t even know the problem. We adults see the problem and have no answer.
© That Reminds Me of a Story”