Joseph L. Kagle, Jr. Peace Essays

In the search for a reasoned world, we must decide on the battles that we should fight to resolve and those which have no meaning in the long struggle toward peace. This is a story about a six-year old who used the wrong words at a time when words were like explosives. In the hands of an adult, the words mean one thing and in the mouth of a six-year old a very innocent thing. In a world at peace, we forgive the six-year old for using the “wrong” word or words; in the world today in a kind of madness, we call in the parents and ask the child to grow up and be an adult too fast. Peace is patience with a twist of wisdom and common sense.

A Red Letter Day: Who Must Learn?

A few days ago, a dear friend was concerned when her six-year old daughter, Erin, came home from first grade, with a red mark on her day-sheet. Red is as bad as bad can be for a first grader. They will do almost anything to not get a red. It is so much worse than a blue (a really good day), a green (one offence, like getting out of their seats or pushing another student), and yellow (two mean or "bad" behaviors), therefore when Erin came home with a red filled in for that day, she expected house arrest and a flogging (at the least).

The class for that day was practicing writing a paragraph, Erin, who normally gets 100's in spelling and other assignments, noticed that the girl near her was finished. Therefore, she did, as she does quite often, feel that she should comment by complimenting the other girl. She said, "That was really fast. It is because you are black." The teacher heard and told Erin that this kind of statement was "inappropriate" to an Afro-American citizen. Erin was flustered and stammered, "No, no, I meant brown." With those two "flagrant offenses", the red was inevitable, along with a long note to Erin's mother and father.

It is to be noted that the teacher did not know that Erin's uncle was a shade of brown from the Orient (her grandparent's adopted son). Also Erin's father watches a lot of television where fast "black athletes" get to some finishing line, goal line, or hoop first, jumping higher and faster than other colors on the track, field or floor. It is my belief that Erin only wanted to make a compliment in the way that a six-year old in First Grade might frame one (when she does not know how to form the sentence for the sentiment). The teacher had certainly been rudimentary schooled in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, adding the language of "harassment prohibited by EEO laws" and "hostile environment" laid down by the District Federal Court in 1985. What she did not know or use were the further refinements of the law in 1998 that said that a racial or sexual act must be "severe or pervasive". Her mother understood this (dealing with adults everyday as a "human resource" expert) and told Erin, "No, black is not a bad word, but you did not make a correct sentence. When you get 100 on your spelling tests, the other students do not say, "That was really good because you are white." She knew that Erin had certainly made, under adult law, a "racial statement" so she continued, "What they should say is: "That was good. You must have studied!" "The same is true here," she counseled, "You might have said, "That was fast. You must have studied hard to do that." At the end of conversation, Erin understood her innocent mistake and may have been wiser for the future. It was made clear to her that her parents were not mad with her about the red mark (in private, they thought that it was inappropriate for a system to substitute, label and/or group all innocent actions by children for "mean" adult ones that are intent on hurting someone or intentionally creating a "hostile environment"). It was clear to these parents that the teacher had to say something and do something. The school system demands an action and any teacher who knows the system, knows to cover her backside. Adult issues do creep into First Grade. The parents were content that the incident was reported home and they could use the case as a "learning experience" for Erin. It is never a mistake if one learns from the event. What concerned the parents (and this writer) is a system where children make "mistakes" in how they voice ideas and then are given red marks which says to all, "This is really bad (in the worse sense of that word, "bad")."

How has this kind of situation been handled in other schools, at other times? It will come up again as long as words are equated with intent and the intent does not fit the effect! How can a teacher cover her backside and yet, at the same time, have the flexibility to teach a child how another student (or worse, the parents of that student) might take these innocent (to the child giving them) words? One way that teachers have used this kind of situation for the betterment of the whole class is: Day One: divide the class into two colors: yellow and purple (any colors will do). Yellow is inferior and purple is superior. All day purples get the best of everything and yellows must sit in the back of the classroom. The only way that you can tell who is yellow and who is purple is by the colored buttons they wear. Day Two: they switch buttons. Day Three: they discuss how they felt and what they could do to make others feel better about their situation. A lot of emotional history can be learned this way. As a dear friend once told me, "If too few have too much and too many have too little, we do not have a sustainable society."

Is this first grade class a microcosm of America today? Do we need to walk in the colored shoes of others to learn what democracy really is and should be? Should we solve mistakes by painting them red and not getting to the cause of the concern? Maybe we all should learn on red letter days!