A Lesson From the Third Grade

"Our Stories in Pictures and Words: Immigration Now & Then"

Art Exhibit at UNH Manchester

Joshua shares his family history, his immigration story of his great-great grandfather coming from Russia, with Roshan, a recent immigrant from Nepal.

My third grade son, Joshua, asked me to chaperon his field trip to UNH in Manchester. After moving mountains to get child care for my 5 year old son, I was able to say yes. I am so glad I did because it was an unexpectedly moving and enlightening experience.

My son's third grade class at Moharimet Elementary School worked for months on a joint venture with third, fourth and fifth graders at Manchester's Webster Elementary School. What makes this joint project so unusual, is that these children are all recent refugees and immigrants. None have English as a first language and none were born here. These children came from all over the world: Nepal, Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan just to name a few. Before my son's class started their project, they read the stories that these children told about their experiences that brought them to the United States. These stories were full of fear, fear of the violence of their homelands; full of sadness, sadness at leaving their homes, friends and family; and hope, hope for safety, freedom and a future in America. It was very moving and sobering to hear the stories of these young children and even more so with the vivid illustrations they provided. They were full of emotion, energy and life. It made the reader very aware of their struggles, sacrifice and ultimate strength.

After reviewing these stories, the class then got to work putting together their own immigration stories. All the stories from the American children were about generations gone by who came to this country from familiar places: Ireland, England, Germany, Russia and Poland. Because, for the most part, there was no living relative to interview about the journey they undertook, the children were required to use their imagination in providing a narrative. The stories from the recent immigrant children were an obvious jumping off point, as all the children described the fear and sadness at leaving one's homeland while excited to start a new and promising life in America. The stories were constructed just as the stories of the recent immigrant children- a narrative accompanied by beautifully constructed illustrations.

Upon reviewing the art exhibit of these children's voices- the mixture of the past and the present, the privileged with the struggling, the native with the immigrant- I was struck by the powerful similarities. Unless we are Native American, we are all immigrants to this country. We all have a family story of fear, sadness and immense hope. The thread of pride that runs though each story, no matter who wrote it, is that it something special to be here in the United States. No other country in the world inspires so much hope for the future.

In the current climate of "The War on Terror," we all but forgotten the fact that we have all come from somewhere else to claim our place in the America we now live. It is easy to look at the "others" and fear them, be suspicious of them, to wonder if they are here for ill or good. If we look far enough back in our own personal histories, I am sure that the majority of us were the "other" at one time or another. This is not to say that we should not be vigilant in securing our borders and maintaining our safety. What we should never forget is that the reason this place, our America, holds such allure is that we safeguard our freedom, our civil liberties and our autonomy like no other. If we give them away in the name of "security" we cease to be who we are and who everyone else aspires to be. It took the collaboration between elementary school children to remind me of this valuable and important message.