I teach at a ECE-8 school.
The seventh and eighth graders take care of the bulletin boards in the hall.
The boards often have a holiday-ish theme, so I wasn't surprised when this one appeared about ten days ago.
Presidents' Day.
Forty-six Presidents' faces printed in ornate Baroque frames.
Carefully cut out, around a million tiny curves.
And stapled to the board.
A little crooked, ok actually a lot crooked.
But the effort was definitely there.
The pictures had been there for a few days, when I happened to be standing in that hall waiting for my students to get out of specials.
And I noticed that there was a hole in the bottom row.
One of the presidents was missing.
Perhaps you can guess which one.
The next day, there wasn't a hole.
Presidents Obama and Biden had been pushed together.
Making the row appear complete.
But the next day, another hole in the bottom row.
And so it goes, every few days.
One day the row appears complete.
But if you look closely,
you know who won't be there.
The next the hole is back;
I have never actually seen anyone moving the pictures.
But I can't help but wonder who is making such a bold political statement.
Oh, Carol, I appreciate this post. I'm struggling with the political legacy of that missing president. I admire a kiddo (or adult?) who is hiding him away. AND I'm (reluctantly!) learning that if I believe in teaching honest history, I have to find ways to teach and talk about the hard facts that sometimes, we have made terrible choices in our leaders, our policies, and our actions. AND: we can and DO learn from those mistakes. Thank you so very much for posting up this bold post tonight. It gave me a burst of hope on a hard day.
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