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Second-Grader Builds Mattresses for the Needy Additional
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This is a very special Christmas story. It is about a little girl with a big heart. It is also about a school that makes the world outside a part of the classroom, about a school that teaches even young children to serve others. And it is about a generous local business. In Leigh Stewart’s second-grade class, it was time to begin the IB unit called “Heigh, Ho! Heigh, Ho! It’s Off to Work We Go!” Students were introduced to the world of work by speakers who came to the classroom and explained “what their jobs are like.” This year the parent volunteers who came to the classroom included a pediatrician, tennis coach, veterinarian, and a special agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). Students asked them questions, such as, “What made you want to do this job?” They took notes and wrote reflections.
The children were now ready for a “Shadowing Experience” on the morning of November 17. Students visited someone at the workplace and asked them nine questions, recorded their answers, and then answered a question that helps them to evaluate the experience. One second-grader chose to shadow her father, sales and marketing manager at Park Place Corporation, an east-coast mattress manufacturer. Through her questions, she learned that 250 people work in their two factories, and that her father’s job “helps tired people [get] a better night sleep. Many people would be sleepy” without him, she wrote in answer to one of the questions. She also discovered that if he changed jobs, what he would like to do is “mostly be a trial loyar because I like to argue.”
“My Dad showed all the steps to make a mattress to me. He let me make two. It is hard!” wrote the student on her return to class. Her father allowed her to select a ticking design, a mattress firmness (soft!), and a size. She followed her two twin mattresses through the entire manufacturing process. When they were completed, they got an extra-special label.
“What is going to happen to my mattresses?” she asked. Her father didn’t know. The child suggested, “Why don’t we give them to someone who needs them.” Park Place Corp. graciously agreed, and through Lower School Chaplain Valerie Riddle, the mattresses were delivered to a family that really needed them. The child may only be in second grade. But, says Mrs. Stewart, “she has a big heart and unusual gift for empathy.” The last question on her shadowing assignment was: “Did you see people showing any of the IB attitudes (appreciation, commitment, confidence, cooperation, creativity, curiosity, empathy, enthusiasm, independence, integrity, respect, and tolerance)? What did it look like?” “I saw there was appreciation when they were working by appreciating their job,” she wrote (with some wildly invented spelling). We are appreciative, too, of this special second-grader, who knows, even at this young age, that she can make a difference in the world.
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