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Articles: Devotion | The 'I can't' funeral
- Prof. venkata ramanamurty mallajosyula
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Thwarted in my efforts to determine why the students and their teacher were dwelling on the negative instead of writing the more positive 'I Can' statements, I returned to my seat and continued my observations. Students wrote for another ten minutes. Most filled their page. Some started another. 'Finish the one you're on and don't start a new one,' were the instructions Donna used to signal the end of the activity. Students were then instructed to fold the papers in half and bring them to the front. When the students reached their teacher's desk, they placed their 'I Can't' statements into an empty shoe box.
When all of the students’ papers were collected, Donna added hers. She put the lid on the box, tucked it under her arm and headed out the door and down the hall. All the students followed the teacher and I followed the students. Halfway down the hallway the procession stopped. Donna entered the custodian's room rummaged around and came out with a shovel. Shovel in one hand, shoe box in the other, Donna marched the students out to the school to the farthest corner of the playground. There they began to dig.
They were going to bury their 'I Can'ts'! The digging took over ten minutes because most of the fourth graders wanted a turn. When the hole approached three feet deep, the digging ended. The box of 'I Can'ts' was placed in a position at the bottom of the hole and then quickly covered with dirt.
Thirty-one 10 and 11-year-olds stood around the freshly dug grave site. Each had at least one page full of 'I Can'ts' in the shoe box, four feet under. So did their teacher.
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