Burying Negative Words

After Spring Break, my classes began some serious topics in literature. My seventh-graders are reading stories of slavery in the United States. We are focusing on those heroes who helped slaves escape. My eighth-graders are studying stories of the Holocaust. Again, our focus is heroes of the Holocaust. In both cases, my students need to feel reverence and respect for the people in these stories.

In order to prepare ourselves and our thinking for these difficult topics, we needed to cleanse ourselves of negative words, negative thoughts. So, we had a ceremony in each of my classes. We buried negative words. Let me go through the steps, so that you can envision my classroom on that day.

• I prepared paper for burial by cutting toilet tissue into tiny pieces and separating the layers. I placed these pieces of toilet tissue into a low-sided basket.

• I bought some viola plants from a local garden center.

• I made sure that I had a good amount of potting soil in a covered container.

• Other supplies needed were five flower pots, a few spoons, paper toweling, the soundtrack from “Schindler’s List,” and a sheet of text to read to each class.

I placed one flower pot with a base layer of soil on a table in front of the classroom. Next to it were spoons, the container of soil, and the basket of toilet tissue pieces. Behind this, out of direct sight, were the flowers.

When class began, I had the lights dimmed. I played the soundtrack from “Schindler’s List” softly as students entered and sat down. When everyone was seated, I paused the music. We took care of our usual beginning-of-class routines, and then I began our ceremony.

I read some things from a document I had tweaked and changed over the years. It explains that I had read a news article in 2006, about a group of people, including the NAACP, in North Carolina. These people had a funeral for a word. A hateful, hurtful word. A word that needed to be removed from our speech. They had purchased a grave site and a tombstone. They deemed the word “dead” and buried it, covering it with dirt. Because it was dead, the hope was that it would no longer be used.

I explained that after I read this article, I began thinking about how I could do this same thing with my students. And I came up with this idea. We would write hateful words that need to be dead on small pieces of paper. One at a time, we would bury these words. They would be covered with dirt. And in time, the paper would break down and become part of the soil. They would truly become…gone.

Our ceremony continued like this:

• I wrote the word that was buried in 2006 on my piece of toilet tissue. I shredded it, placed it in the flower pot, and added a spoonful of soil, mixing the pieces of tissue into the soil to cover them.

• I invited the students to think of any words that they had ever said that caused pain or sadness. Or they might think of words said to them that have caused pain or sadness. These words could be buried. I started the music again.

• I walked around the class distributing pieces of toilet tissue to the students. I explained that this was a very individual activity. There was to be no sharing. Our words were only to be known by us, ourselves. They must remain unsaid to truly die.

• The students approached the front table, one at a time, to shred and bury their words. Some students, sadly, asked for more pieces of paper.

• Once everyone had finished, I went back to the front table. I placed a flowering viola plant in the pot, adding more soil to hold it sturdily. Then, there was a moment of quiet.

• I asked the students to write in their notebooks what just happened. What had we done? What will it do? Will it work? I put three minutes on the timer, and I asked them to write for the three minutes.

• When the timer beeped, in most classes, students asked for a minute or two more.

• Then, we talked.

The class period was powerful. It felt like an actual ceremony. For me, it was like church.

Once our weather allows, each class will go outside to transfer our flowers and soil into planters in the front of our school building. By that time, I suspect, most of the paper will have broken down. The negative words will be gone.

“We are committed to ending hate—word and talk.” Rev. Wendell Anthony, NAACP 2006