Breaking Barriers: A Celebration of Diversity and of Jackie Robinson
By the Students in 4C
February 2009

What a year 2009 is shaping up to be! An African American President was inaugurated last month for the first time ever in the United States, which causes us all to think long and hard about the not-so-distant past--when black people were told they could not attend school alongside whites, when Martin Luther King led his March on Washington in 1963, and when Jackie Robinson was told by club manager Branch Rickey that he wanted a man who could restrain himself from responding to the ugliness of racial hatred that was certain to come starting in 1947 when he crossed baseball's color line.

This story was wonderfully depicted by the students in Ms. Nichole Corcoran's fourth grade class. As the play unfolded, everyone spoke their lines clearly and truly seemed to understand the the "ugliness" of the past. After the performance, three students were selected to read the essays they had written about how they each broke a personal barrier. Hooray for Naomi who, through her own perseverance, got to play football with the guys at the "Y"; for Brianna who challenged herself to really improve her grades, and to Gabe who picked himself up, dusted himself off, and continued to play baseball after his injury.

Ms. Corcoran also thanked the parents for loaning costumes and props. Great job!