By Donna Gordon Blankinship, Editor, JTNews
After Sept. 11, we all searched for concrete ways to help people in New York and Washington heal. While most of us donated money, second graders at the Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle wanted to make a more personal connection.
They used words and pictures to offer hope and healing to children who had lost a parent or a loved one in the tragedies. And thanks to the hard work of their teachers and a few dedicated parent volunteers, those heartfelt messages have been collected in a book printed in Seattle and shipped this week to New York.
Every student thought of ways kids can make a difference in their families, their neighborhoods or the world — from helping cook dinner to planting a tree. This brainstorming among the 38 second graders in three different groups was a natural part of the JDS Jewish values curriculum and part of the way the teachers helped their students cope with their feelings after Sept. 11. The idea for turning these thoughts into a book came from the grown-ups.
“We can teach them how to be a blessing to the family that’s still alive,” explained 8-year-old Molly Dubow, in describing their book called …and you shall be a blessing: Thoughts on ways we can make a difference From Children to Children.
Megan Brumer, 7, said every student thought up her own way that kids can be a blessing and then drew a picture to illustrate the idea.
Uriel Cohen, 8, said it was easy to think of ideas to write and draw.
Megan said she hopes the children who read the book will be happy again.
Added Molly, whose own dad died a few years ago, “I hope when they get it they won’t be so sad anymore and they will help their world and be a blessing.” She said the book helped her think of how she could be a blessing for her mom.
The introduction to the book, written by parent volunteer Audrey Covner, explains that the young people wanted to remind the children who lost a loved one about all the reasons we are in the world. There is no mention of God or mitzvot — the Hebrew word for commandments, which is sometimes translated as “good deeds” — because the book was meant to appeal to children of all faiths, as well as those being raised without a specific religion.
The introduction states: “We need to remember that each of us makes a difference in our families, in our neighborhoods and in our world. Remembering what we can do to make the world a better place helps us understand how important we are. We can feel proud. And even though someone we love may no longer be at our side, we know they would also be proud of us.”
The children were proud of their efforts and happy to see the book in print. “Everybody did a really nice job,” said Megan. “It’s really cool,” added Molly.
All three children interviewed for this story added, however, that they wished the book was printed in color (For financial reasons, the cover is in color but the pages inside are black and white). Uriel wished their names were on the pages they created. And as 7- and 8-year-olds are always willing to do with the least amount of prompting, they complained about the way their writing was edited by their teachers. “I wish they didn’t shorten everybody’s stuff,” Molly said, offering to recite the entire poem she had written.
The grown-ups smiled at reports of the young people’s critical reviews and commented on how this project helped the children grow in many ways.
Judaics teacher Aileen Okrent said she has already seen the positive impact of the book on her own students. She is hopeful it will make a difference for the kids in New York as well.
“Hopefully, it will accomplish the goal of making some kids’ hearts feel a little lighter. As a teacher we use children’s literature to teach so much,” Okrent said, adding that she hopes the book will teach children “they can go forward after a terrible tragedy. God only knows, really. As a teacher, I’m always optimistic in planting seeds because you never know where they will grow.”
The hardest part of the project was pulling the children’s ideas together into a book and getting it printed, but teacher Linda Feldman said, “We were fortunate enough to have a parent who really spearheaded getting it printed and … to follow through on that. That would have been the hardest part for me.” The rest of the second grade teaching team is Naama Artzi and Lisa Zwang.
The integral parent volunteer was Covner, whose family moved to the area from California in August. She has children in kindergarten (Michaela) and second grade (Claire) and, lucky for the JDS community, is currently not employed. The former Stanford University Law School instructor had been working on similar “service learning projects,” including her most recent job teaching law to high school students on probation. Service learning combines community service with education — a natural fit for the Jewish Day School’s mitzvot curriculum.
“I think the results will be two fold: that our kids at JDS feel like they accomplished something in their writing and they were able to help others. And from the kids in New York’s perspective, we helped them get through a rough time,” Covner said.
Covner gave credit to several other parents and organizations who helped bring the project to fruition. Graphic designer Beryl Cohen scanned the artwork and donated her time getting the book ready for the printer. Swifty Printing in Seattle donated the printing. An anonymous donor paid for the materials and incidental expenses such as mailing the 250 books to The World Trade Center Community Relief Center. The relief center will distribute the book to children who lost parents or other loved ones on Sept. 11.
When asked what her next project would be, Covner laughed, and then admitted she had already been approached by one of the kindergarten teachers to think about a service learning project for her students.