Connecting with a superstar

photos: the author as superstar, in the three moments...

1) A first grade class was re-reading Simran Jeet Singh's picture book biography Fauja Singh Keeps Going when they spotted him outside their classroom window.

2) The author was taking a phone call but he graciously accepted their attentions.

3) A few minutes later, the class heard their new friend talk about his story, and his work, under the spotlight in the theater

 

For young people, books are treasures and authors are superstars. And that's how it should be.

But Gordon teachers will do everything they can to demystify the writing process and allow students to see that they, too, can be authors. They can be superstars and they can create treasures.

When visiting authors come to Gordon, they can speed along this process by connecting directly with the people they meet.

Simran Jeet Singh did that expertly. The author shared his stories generously, and allowed his audiences to see themselves in those stories.

For the second graders who are developing the criteria for this year's Gordon School Multicultural Picture Book Award, he was a thoughtful student of the genre.

For the Middle School athletes who are just beginning basketball season, he had stories of playing Division III basketball. 

For the students who are learning to advocate for justice, he told of how his brother became the first NCAA player to wear a turban in a college basketball game after a lot of work and advocacy from coaches and his college.

For the parents who came to his evening talk, he started a direct, earnest dialogue about antiracist parenting, grounded in his own experience with his daughter.

For students from Southeast Asia, he was a proud Punjabi speaker who was finding ways to increase the visibility of the Sikh community.

All of these identities overlap for many of the people who met Dr. Singh while he was here, and the impact of his visit is still echoing a week later.

 

More on Dr. Singh at https://www.simranjeetsingh.org/