John Lewis, Heroes, and Stories to Grow On

August 16th, 2020

John Lewis standing up and speaking out against voter suppression and disenfranchisement

John Lewis, a Civil Rights leader and congressman in the United States House of Representatives for 33 years, died on July 17th, 2020. His courage, eloquence, intelligence, compassion and passionate, tireless commitment to racial justice, a multi-racial, integrated democracy, and “non-violent” social change has inspired me and countless others. He is a true hero. He was fond of saying that people needed to “get into good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America.”  Talking with your children about your heroes and exploring with them (in a non-judgemental way!) their heroes, is an excellent way to focus in on what is important, what is worthy of praise and blame, and the possibilities for what it can mean to be a human being.

John Lewis accompanying children to Comi-con 2015, dressed as an a younger version of himself, complete with backpack, during the Edmund Pettus Bridge march in Selma in 1965.

We struggle to come to grips with what must be done collectively in terms of policing, public safety, racial and socio-economic inequality, our relationships with the natural world, participatory democracy, and the kinds of community we want to cultivate. I as a teacher think specifically about what needs to be done to change the educational landscape in the United States, what can be done at the school where I work, and what I can do as a teacher of young children. One of the things I can do is share stories with my students that help them understand what kind of world they live in and encourage them to envision what kind of world they want to live in. Such stories can give  psychological, cultural and historical contexts and traditions that allow children to find their way in the world.

“Preaching to the Chickens: The story of young John Lewis,” is one such story. Jabari Asim, the author of Preaching to the Chickens, describes himself as a “lifelong admirer” of John Lewis, and he wanted to show the boy before he became the great man he was to become. Drawing on the historical record and  Lewis’s memoir Walking with the Wind, Asim shows the young John Lewis gathering himself, finding his way, his place, in his family, community and the world, and along the way becoming a different kind of leader, “a participator, an activist, a doer.” Check out my reading of Preaching to the Chickens at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9Z-6wcoAtQ&t=105s

Read the book at the open internet library! https://openlibrary.org/works/OL1386646W/Between_past_and_future

Hannah Arendt talks about three ways of “ordering” relationships between people: violence ( fighting, war, force); reason (debate, rhetoric, deliberation among equals); and authority ( tradition, education). These three categories are obviously not mutually exclusive, there are all sorts of gray areas in between them, but what is important here is that education to a great extent relies on the inequality between elders and newcomers. In a “well functioning community” the wisdom of the elders prepares the young people for the problems and the possibilities of adult life. It is also true that for a society to grow and develop there must be a dynamic exchange, a productive tension, between the old ways and the new. And when traditional power structures, people’s individual and collective practices, and the dominant ideology of what is real codify racism and the rape of the earth, regular folks, brave leaders, independent thinkers and artists, various political movements and creative collectives need to provide the guideposts  for young people to find their way(s) to make a difference in this world.

https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/activist-toolkit-blog/2020/06/supporting-black-lives-matter-activists

I was working with a group of kids and we were spending all our time outdoors, connecting with the natural world, learning about what is important, and going on lots of adventures. Our theme song became “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” the anti-Vietnam classic by Pete Seeger ( John Lewis was in the minority when he voted against the war in Iraq in 2002!). The song tells the story of a foolish captain who dies trying to cajole his soldiers into crossing a river at a point that is too deep and too muddy to ford. The kids had lots of opportunities to chide me by singing the song when I made mistakes, and I had to earn their trust when I wanted them to try to do something that was difficult, challenging or perhaps counter-impulsive. We, the elders, need to dig deep into our progressive, radical and time-immemorial cultural traditions and practices, and at the same time keep our ears, eyes and hearts open to the freshness, vitality and wisdom of the newcomers, the children.

Let the last words be those of John Lewis. John Lewis was the “youngest member of the “Big Six,” six black leaders who led the march on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, when he said “get into this great revolution that is sweeping this nation. Get in and stay in the streets of every city , every village and hamlet of this nation until true freedom comes…” Listen when he counsels us to not give in to despair: “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day,a. week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” And take heart with these words in September 2019 in support of youth climate activists, “these young people  are saying we all have a right to know what is in the air we breathe, in the water we drink, in the food we eat. It is our responsibility to leave this planet cleaner and greener. That must be our legacy.” Or perhaps these words taken from Preaching to the Chickens. “In a soft voice, John would say to them, ‘Enjoy this day that God has given us.’ The chickens, looking straight at him, seemed to understand!”

Check out this photomontage of John Lewis throughout his life https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/20/politics/gallery/john-lewis/index.html

With older children read the amazing graphic novel trilogy March about John Lewis and the Civil Rights Movement https://www.childrenswritersguild.com/the-march-trilogy/

Watch the movie about the life of John Lewis, Good Trouble https://www.johnlewisgoodtrouble.com/

Make a list of your heroes and explore how they map out a field of action, purpose and meaning. Figure out ways to share your heroes with your children. Share stories, create stories, to share with your children that affirm the roots of different cherished, progressive, radical cultural and family traditions, and make cracks in the monovocal mirror of the dominant, hegemonic ideologies. Support your children/students in creating their own pantheon of heroes great and humble. Don’t be too quick to censor a child’s superheroes, rather explore the psychological needs and social desires that a particular hero might embody.

 

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