Living Our Mission in the Lower School
By Lily Durant, 3rd Grade Student
is when we think about our community, and the communities around us. Mrs. McKeever has an awesome collection of books that we read, and then do a project on each one. We talk about different perspectives and putting ourselves in other people’s shoes, to see things from their point of view. It’s important to have diversity—life would be boring without it!
In my favorite project, we made self-portraits with words that describe us. It was a “flip-up”: first, you see a portrait of me, then you flip the page to see the words that describe me, followed by a hand drawn portrait of me. We talked about invisible and visible traits, so I described myself as kind, caring, dyslexic, intelligent, and loving—and I love music.
In the book, The Oldest Student by Rita Hubbard, we learned about a woman who lived to be 121 years old. I love her life story. She started in slavery, then she became free and learned to read. It was one of my favorite books so far. I like the collage art in the illustration, too—it’s very poetic.
We have been learning a lot about slavery in class, and I’ve been telling my mom how awful slavery is. I wanted to express myself, but I felt like it wasn't enough. Ms. McKeever told us that she entered a poem into a contest when she was young and won, and that inspired me to write a poem about slavery called “Black Rose.”
Black Rose
by Lily Durant
The trees in the forest and the trees in the meadow all sway to our rhythm as we protest.
The soft light of freedom flickering like that of long ago.
Like the sound of a wild rose in the ever so soft wind.
It sways in the direction of north where slavery is against the law.
And so, we protest, we protest a peaceful protest.
We are torn away from home.
Today true home is just a memory.
Like that of the black rose.
This article is part of a series from Carroll Connection 22-23: Living our mission every day as an inclusive community of learners
- Carroll Connection 2022-23