We have this thing called state testing in the state of Pennsylvania. Every state has it. And while this "test" is supposed to build up our students, it seems like sometimes it is doing the opposite. Finding multiplying love in standardization is tricky. 

Not only that but we are quite literally asked to take down our walls. There can be no motivation. No beautiful words. No student work showing. For me, I have this mental block when it comes to taking down the heart of my classroom. Because at this point in the year, those walls represent all 22 of the hearts sitting in my classroom. I can bring myself to cover with colorful paper, but tearing down the hearts, I just cannot do. 

Regardless, as I was taking down a section of my wall to put up new work which would then be covered by sheets of pink, red and blue paper, I found our class rendition of Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream Speech. Call it fate, but reading that speech again was just what I needed. Below is the typed version of what my students wrote: 

I stand here today this day will be in history. Abraham Lincol had the greatest speech of hope and history. Sadly, the black man is still not free from poor, lonely island. And he will never be free. All people must have the rights to be free. Fair words are written in the constitution that is what all people must follow. In the world there must be peace and happiness for everyone. All black Americans should be treated as white. We have to be equal to others who have different skin colors. We have to greet others no what what culture we are from. We are still all human. We have to treat people how they want to be treated. We hoped for freedom. There is no people until black people get their rights. Winds will change this nation. Until that day there is no justice. We will not end civil rights until we have freedom. We will not be stuck in having a ragged school. We will not be stuck in getting judged for how we look. Our brotherhoos is supposed to be harmony, but instead we get so much torture like bad schools and bad environments.

And getting yelled at for being in neighborhoods for whites only. Black and Whites should have friendship and beg their parents to go to their houses. I hav a dream that is about not fighting. My little children will not have to deal with skin color. They will be judged by who they are on the inside. People that are hateful. A governor that blocks our rights. One day there will be a change for the world. Little black boys and girls will be free and equal to join hands with white boys and girls to be brothers and sisters. 

I have a dream that everything that is low shall rise up. Everyone that is treated greatly, shall be treated equally. This is our hope an faith. We will change mountains of sadness to mountains of hope. Let freedom ring from everywhere! Let freedom ring!

When you ask us to take down our walls, you ask us to take down the depth and the knowledge we have been learning all year. The dreams. The hopes. The learned inequalities, the understanding of peace and power and the ability to act and make a difference. Without our hearts, we cannot make a difference. When we ask all students of different backgrounds to perform well on the same test, we are not recognizing inherent inequalities and diversities. By covering our walls with colorful paper, we continue to keep this dream alive. For I have a dream, that one day, we will be allowed to bring more of the world into education, to treat all subjects with equality and to realize that history-the most beautiful book of all- should be taught to a greater depth than it is currently being taught at this very moment. Because every story we write as human beings is part of that history. You cannot recognize the global beauty of the world without it.