We Shall Overcome

 Each year around this time, I teach my 4^th and 5^th grade students “We Shall Overcome.” We learn about its history and importance, and we practice following a multi-verse song in the textbook. The 5^th graders also listen to a portion of MLK, Jr.’s “We Shall Overcome” speech and discuss the things that we still must overcome.

 

I wrote about this activity two years ago and shared the list that that group of kids said they must overcome. As I began the activity this year, I figured that the list would be much the same, but, apart from Covid 19 and bullying, I was wrong. Here is what they said:

 

Abusive parents

Bad people in the world

Bankruptcy

Bullying

Cancer

College and job applications

Covid 19

Criminals

Death

Depression and anxiety

EOGs and all tests

Family problems

Fear

Gas prices

Global warming

Grandparents dying

Heartbreak

Jobs not paying people enough–Fair Wages

Monkeypox, the Flu, RSV

Moving away from friends

Not a lot of food, not good beds, not good houses

Not getting enough sleep

Oppression

Parents divorcing

Paying bills and taxes and inflation and unfair taxation

Police Brutality

Pollution

Racism

Sexism

Stocks going down

Taxes

Unequal pay

War

 

As one of my classes was walking out, I heard one of my students say, “I don’t have depression. But I have anxiety. My anxiety is off the charts.”

 

And that broke my heart…as if it weren’t breaking enough for the things that these 10 and 11-year-olds have already been exposed to and worry about.

 

God. There is too much information. There are too many things that children know what they don’t need to know. Help us, as adults, to protect our children from things they don’t need to know until they are old enough to know them. Help us, as adults, to know how to be real and transparent with events and emotions without overexposing our children to events and emotions too big that they can’t handle them. And God? Teaching is getting harder and harder because students are carrying more and more junk and it’s coming out wonky and making it difficult to learn. Help us, as teachers, to have the wisdom, strength, and stamina to overcome the information overload and sense of entitlement that comes with it, and help us to be present with and for our students, even as they present all of their baggage. We cannot overcome without you. So help us, God, to overcome. Amen.