Editor's note: The author wrote this letter on Saturday, March 24, during the March for Our Lives rallies in Washington, D.C., and across the globe.
Dear Students and Families,
A few years ago, I was gifted one of my most treasured possessions from my third-grade class. A parent had created a print of a tree using all of my students' thumbprints in green ink to represent the leaves. The text next to the tree was taken from the musical Hamilton and read, "Legacy. What is a legacy? It's planting seeds in a garden you never get to see."
As a teacher, you learn to accept non-closure. You focus on the issues in front of you every day in your classroom and try not to fixate on the questions that are out of your control. Will my students be OK? Will they be successful? Will they lead happy lives? Will they grow up to make a positive impact on our world?
As an elementary teacher, I cheer and cry at the graduation ceremony at the end of each year, hoping that all of my students will keep in touch and return to visit, yet knowing that many will walk out the school doors and our paths will never cross again. As a teacher, all you can do is hope that you've done the best job you can with your students and that some of the life lessons will stick.
Watching the hundreds of thousands of students and families at today's March for Our Lives in dozens of cities around the world brought me to tears on more than one occasion. I was overcome with gratitude and awe at the passion and composure of these students and their families who had accompanied them.
When I scrolled through my social media feed and saw photos of my own students proudly marching, signs in hand, chanting for their rights to attend safe schools and live to come home at the end of every day, I felt an emotion that I have never felt in more than nine years of working in schools: I felt a twinge of closure.
Those of you who took to the streets and those who have engaged in other forms of activism have given me more than hope. You have given me the reassurance that the future of our country will be cared for. Today, I saw current and former students (all under the age of 18) step into the world and use their voices to take ownership of something that matters in their own lives.
They were courageous, articulate and unafraid. Whether you agree with their cause or not, you have to admit: These students embody what it means to be active citizens.
Teachers understand that we are planting seeds in a garden that we may never get to see. Today, teachers saw the seedlings emerge. We saw a glimpse of that garden.
To all students who marched today: Thank you. You are everything your teachers hope you will grow up to be.
With love,
A teacher
Kleinrock is a fourth-grade teacher at Citizens of the World Charter School Silver Lake in Los Angeles, California. You can follow her on Instagram @teachandtransform.
