One of my favorite children’s books right now is called YOU MATTER
It’s by Christian Robinson and a simple and simply beautiful way to display how everyone and everything
has a right to be
Whether you are the fly on the tail of a dinosaur
Or a old man sitting with a friend under an even older tree
YOU ARE WORTHY
It’s enough to make me cry, the way in which the book so clearly resonates with
my first graders
And yet would seem more akin to complex mathematical thought to some of the people in charge of too much in our world
This idea of mattering has been circling my brain so much since I read Dr. Bettina Love’s book
What are the ways in which you can let someone know they matter?
Let yourself know that you matter?
That goes beyond performance?
That makes an impact?
That help People move beyond survival to resistance and joy and healing?
With the words of bell hooks I am reminded of how important it is to not assume that kids “get it” and understand it because, as she says, they have a innate way of giving love right back to you
How important it is to keep providing experiences in which we practice practice practice
walking through this world
TOGETHER
co-constructing how we want to be with one another
There are so many picture books that beautifully portray
the way our world should could can will be
But it is just as easy for those books to become a space in which kids know what to say to keep the conversation moving along, can parrot what they’ve heard, without internalizing replicating believing in their messages
just like an adult can read all the books on the antiracist book lists floating around and then still not have enough personal or historical knowledge to refrain from perpetuating harm
Love is an action, bell hooks says.
And I think of the deep love I have for education and for my students are the force behind why it is VITAL that we all know that we matter
That others matter and that this world is best when travelled together in pursuit of making it better
What are those actions that can help us love more in our world?
What are the ways in which we connect to love?
