Human Family
Background
Human Family is a formative Grade 1 & Grade 3 group assessment that synthesizes Social Studies and E.L.A. curricula. Poetry is the vehicle through which complex social issues become accessible. Illustrations of the vivid imagery from Dreams by Langston Hughes and Human Family by Maya Angelou allow students to consider a variety of NCSS standards including culture; time, continuity and change; individual development and identity; individuals, groups and institutions; and civic ideals and practice.
Hold fast to dreams / for if dreams die /life is a broken-winged bird / that cannot fly
Hold fast to dreams / for when dreams go / life is a barren field / frozen with snow
I note the obvious differences in the human family. Some of us are serious, some thrive on comedy.
Some declare their lives are lived as true profundity. And others claim they really live the real reality.
The variety of our skin tones can confuse, bemuse, delight: Brown and pink and beige and purple, tan and blue and white.
I've sailed upon the seven seas and stopped in every land. I've seen the wonders of the world, not yet one common man.
I know ten-thousand women called Jane and Mary Jane. But I've not seen any two who really were the same.
Mirror twins are different, although their features jibe. And lovers think quite different thoughts while lying side by side.
We love and lose in China, we weep on England's moors, and laugh and moan in Guinea, and thrive on Spanish shores.
We seek success in Finland...
Are born and die in Maine. In minor ways we differ, in major we're the same.
I note the obvious differences between each sort and type, but we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.