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Fourth Grade:

**Bringing Down the Mountains** // "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made pain, and the crooked places will be made straight; ‘and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.’” from I Have a Dream, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., quoting Isaiah 40:4-5 // Ever since kindergarten, I have been happy at Pratt Elementary school. All kinds of kids were together at Pratt: Asian kids, Jewish kids, Christian kids, Somali kids, Hmong kids, and African American kids. Some kids had less money, and some kids had a fair bit of money. Some kids had better housing than others, some kids had parents with better education that other parents, some kids had more books at home than others, and some kids had more ways of doing research than others. Surprisingly, even with all these differences, almost everyone was friends with each other. The school was so small that I knew in person all but two kids. This helped kids be friends with each other even with all of these differences. This also made it easier for kid and teachers to help each other. This meant that kids who were having trouble learning could have more attention from others. For me, Pratt exalted the valleys and lowered the hills and mountains. The hills and mountains are things that keep people from getting education, and the valleys are things that keep people from being friends. This year Pratt is different because it merged with Tuttle. Before the merger Pratt had 80 kids, and now Pratt has 180 kids. Nobody is as friendly to each other as they used to be. I thin the reason for this is because people feel unsettled. The groups who are having the hardest time being friends are the new kids and the old kids. One reason many Tuttle kids are not as friendly is because their school closed, and they had to move to a different school where they felt like they did not belong. Also, Tuttle kids probably feel jealous that the old kids got to keep their school. The old Pratt kids do not really enjoy school as much as they used to because they do not know everyone like they used to. It seems like there are many strangers. Because people are not as friendly to each other they also don’t help each other like they used to, and this makes it harder to learn. Now there are rough and crooked places in Pratt that were not there before the merger. The rough places get in the way of education, and the crooked places get in the way of friendship. I think it is cool that Dr. King in //I Have a Dream// is quoting the Jewish prophet Isaiah. King does not think of himself as just as an African American and a Christian. This inspires me to think of myself not just as a Caucasian Jew or an old Pratt student. Here are some ways that I might put King’s words into action. I might suggest to student council that Tuttle kids and Pratt kids could go together to a younger classroom and help. This might get them to work together. If they work together, they might also talk together which would help them understand each other. Then they would probably be more friendly to each other even though they would not be best friends. I could also invite a Tuttle kid to sit with me at lunch. This might help get us to be friends. Pratt used to be one community in which people helped each other learn, and that’s what I would like to have happen again. What all flesh should see together is one big community.