A Tale of Two Countries

A few weeks ago I was discussing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with my tenth grade students as we finished our reading of the famous Civil War era novel. The novel was written at an important point in American history, and we were discussing America as the students understood it, both as it was in the mid-1800’s, and as it is now.

I asked students to help me brainstorm a list of associations and phrases they have about our country, and was not ready for what came when they started sharing ideas. I was expecting things like “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave,” or “City on a Hill,” or “The Great Melting Pot”, ideas I held as a tenth grader and that still hold true for me today. The 1980's was a different time in our country’s past, but I didn’t know it was so distant: what came forth from the students was like a punch in the gut.

“Greedy,” the first student said. Then other hands went up, and greedy was followed by words like “arrogant,” “fat and lazy,” and “always at war.” It was eight or nine students before the first one said something positive, which was “Freedom of Choice.” I was shocked and stunned by the word list. I usually know what to expect from my students, but I did not know these young adults would have more negative associations than positive ones for our country. How could a student think of our country as being “always at war”? We are a great and generous nation. We love peace and justice. What’s going on here?

And then it occurred to me. For a fifteen-year-old student, America has been at war for more than half that student’s life, and certainly since that student has been able to read a newspaper or share current events in a social studies class. For fifteen year olds, it might as well be always and forever (seriously, talk to them about their love lives!). These students are growing up at a time when America is staring its identity in the face, and is almost evenly split down the middle with people who think we should go in one direction, and people who think we should go in another. It makes me think of the time that our novel was set, when deep disagreement led our country to Civil War.

So after the Presidential Inauguration last week I shared poetry about our country with students, including the four poems written to mark the inauguration of a president, and each of these poems was full of the language that appeals to the best of us as citizens, and the high ideals of our country. We had great discussion about them, including focusing on why those who’ve come before us have given us (through great sacrifice) the great gifts of freedom and democracy, and how it’s now our turn to hold the torch and pass it on.

I asked the students to pick out a line from one of these poems and share why they think the message is important. With his permission, I want to share part of what one of my students wrote, a great 10^th grade writer and thinker named Nick Kline: the next generation’s vision of what America should be will become the foundations of what we will be. "If we can take a child's view of what America is, then we can give our children a place to be proud of. We can’t "visit" (the future) because we haven’t made it yet. (But) if we can remember all the great things about America, then that knowledge will be passed down from generation to generation."

A child’s view of America is our destiny. With students like Nick I have great hope for our future, but as adults we are the ones who inform them about what America has been, what it is, and how, despite our disagreements, what Nick called “the foundation” of what we must be. Pass it along. If we leave our definition of America to others, especially those who don’t understand or disagree with our core values, what our children come to understand may hit us back someday like a punch in the gut.

But if we protect it, if we point out the great promise of this country fulfilled when, no matter your politics, the former president and the new president shake hands and exchange power peacefully in front of the whole world, then our kids will understand. The great reality of America continues to be a work in progress, and our young people will have their chance to understand it, live it, and define it for themselves. It has already started.

Note: This blog post is from a series originally published as personal essays written for the Van Buren County Advertiser from 2008-2014 by Corey Harbaugh under the title It's All Good. The It's All Good columns were written to feature and celebrate life in and around Gobles, Michigan.