The Conversation

The Conversation

We were at reading group. We had been writing letters to our partner school in Namibia, Africa. We had looked at maps and photos of the learners there and were now writing thank you notes for some gifts they had sent us. One of my students had actually been to South Africa, the country directly south of Namibia, and he and some of the others were discussing the pictures of our African friends. I was editing another student’s letter when I overheard the following:

“They wear uniforms in their school.”

“Yeah, and they don’t have shoes.”

 “Their skin is really dark.  Are they black?” 

“Some people in South Africa call them colored.” 

“Do they like that?” 

 “I don’t know. But if it were me, I think I’d like to be called by my name.” 

There’s an old song from the musical “South Pacific” called “You Have to Be Carefully Taught.” The song states that parents teach children prejudice. Hour after hour, day after day, children are taught to judge others by the color of their skin, their disabilities, their nationalities, and the language they speak -- not by the content of their characters as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed.   

My students, as children often do, had struck right to the heart of the matter. All people have the right to be recognized for their individual humanness. People don’t want to be labeled; they want to be called by name. And isn’t it wonderful to hear someone call your name in love?

This conversation impressed me.  My students are only seven and eight years old. They don’t have much life experience. A trip to Africa is a rarity for young children. But somehow, thanks to their parents’ teaching, they realized this great truth. Calling people by name not only honors them, but also communicates the respect we must have for each other if we are to get along in this diverse but wonderful world.

         

Our sister school in Namibia has over seven hundred students and, although the official language is English, most people still speak their village language. We don’t know which of these many learners will be able to read our letters. We don’t know their names.

But my kids do know one very important thing. When I asked them how we should address our letters, every one of them confidently called out, “Dear Friend.”