The Heart of the Matter

I’ve been teaching American history and American politics for more than 20 years and I’ve grown to be experienced at explaining the very complicated story of slavery and race.  I say explaining as if I can help students to make sense of America’s tangled racial history; that’s rather an overstatement.  But I can help them to wrap their minds around the ways in which race has played out in our story.  I can help them to be aware of these questions as they move into the world.  

Nowhere has this task been as difficult as it is at my school.  It has nothing to do with the minds of the students I teach.  These children are bright and capable.  However, the diversity of the school and the racial tolerance the children routinely demonstrate toward one another and expect from the world is a complication.  Many of them truly can’t imagine that the color of another person’s skin would cause you to treat them differently.  It seems so obvious that such a view is sheer ignorance that they struggle to understand a world that is intolerant.

If something like slavery in the Americas were as simple to understand as a demand for labor solved by the short-term use of slaves, it might be easier to teach.  But of course, that’s not at all how it played out.  Enslaved people arrived in the American colonies as early as the 1600s and the institution didn’t formally end until 1864.  We’ve been living with the legacy of slavery and the racial prejudice that drove it since then.  More than 400 years of racial prejudice and animus can’t be easily explained away to students who see such views as outdated and ignorant.

So I take time to set the stage for this topic that will run as a significant thread through the American story.  In my diverse classrooms we pause to process the feelings that slavery and its legacy generate.  Though I wouldn’t say that I enter into these conversations easily, I do take for granted my ability to manage them.

Last week, we were at the start of the journey to think about slavery and its legacy in the United States.  It’s our first go-round with this topic in the 7th grade.  They aren’t too young to handle it, but the topic is potentially alienating so I had spent some time thinking about where we would start our discussions.  We had earlier explored the demand for labor in Jamestown and now it was time to think about the Middle Passage transportation of newly enslaved Africans.  We discussed the journey and the horror of the experience.  There were thoughtful questions as 12 and 13 year olds began to get their mind around what happened.  Things were going well and then one question caught me off-guard.  It came from a 12 year old of mixed race parents; a bright, organized, and sensitive student who likes her world in literal and exacting terms.  A raised her hand and when it was her turn to speak she looked right at me and with her heart on her sleeve asked, “Didn’t anyone understand how wrong it is to treat people this way?”

I paused at this heartfelt question.  Then my eyes filled with tears.  Because, honestly, isn’t this really the heart of the matter?  Was there not one passionate leader who could speak to people and lead them to reject the madness that is slavery?

In the pause, the class sprang into action.  M handed me a box of tissues.  J asked if I need a hug.  I wiped my eyes, explained what a good and powerful question it is, and told them how much their hearts and minds give me hope for the world.  Then 16 7th graders and I got back to work, wrapping our minds around the cruelty and injustice of slavery, all of us just a little more aware that these children make the world a better place.