The Day after the Election

I started by opening up the floor for discussion in class, by allowing everyone space to share, and by engaging every student I could in an individual conversation throughout the day. What emerged was shock, fear, and anger. Most consistently, the refrain was “How could adults have done this?” With a few students, the conversation shifted to fears about family members who are immigrants, with one student even wondering if she would ever see her Dad’s side of the family again. Absolutely heartbreaking.

My text for class today was poetry, the only medium that felt appropriate for processing on such an emotionally heavy day. I ended up going with “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou. As I thought about a message I wanted to leave students with, this text seemed the most appropriate: America has a dark history of oppression, but people (of color) have managed to maintain their hope, resilience, and struggle in the face of it all. Unfortunately, I fear dark days ahead. But, I want my students to plan and consider how to resist in those days.

At the end of class, I had each student choose and read a line from the poem that most spoke to them today. I heard words from across the poem. Every student shared — including two students who are very hesitant to ever share in class.

Sitting here this evening, preparing for tomorrow, these lines continue to ring in my ears:

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.