This is my 30th year in education; the first 27 were in secondary and higher education; currently, I’m the principal of a Title 1 elementary school in Salt Lake City School District. The majority of our students are either new to the country or their parents are. Everyday, they shine a spotlight on the American quest of hope, honor, and justice in a way older students don’t.
Recently, I overheard two students talking, both about 9, one from Central America, the other from Eastern Africa. One asked the other if she thought the Russian president, “Putnam,” was a bully when he was a kid. The other agreed he is “really mean,” and then wondered who the “upstanders” were in the invasion — in anti-bullying lessons at our school, we talk about the witnesses of bullying as either upstanders or bystanders. The bystanders do nothing, the upstanders find a way to let their voice be heard, like telling an adult, inviting the victim to join them somewhere else, or, if it’s safe, telling the bully to stop. The first student said her mom told her the U.S. president was sending soldiers to protect the people in Ukraine, so “we” are upstanders. The conversation ended with the girls talking about the possibility that people displaced in Ukraine might come to our school, too.
Yeah, I have the best job on the planet.
Over the last several years, grown-up media has been a bombardment of tribalism in political (and medical) discourse. Maybe I’m a Pollyanna, but I choose to believe the girls’ discourse as more representative of this country’s foundational beliefs than the “me first” attitude I keep hearing in other places. No doubt there are huge problems with justice and equity for all, but I have hope that the kids in school now want to be upstanders in all things. If two girls with vastly different home cultures, languages, and religions can agree to be upstanders, there’s got to be hope for the rest of us.
Margarita Borelli Cummings, Salt Lake City
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