Dear Ms. Bridges

At the end of Black History Month, second graders wrote letters to Ruby Bridges.
 

In 1960, at the age of six, Bridges became the first and only Black student at William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans.
 

The second graders first heard her story in November, when they celebrated the anniversary of her first day at school.
 

Through the year, they have been focusing on important traits of changemakers, including kindness, optimism, grit, resilience, empathy, hope, and compassion.
 

They defined these traits, used them in sentences, drew picture examples, and connected them to changemakers in the world. 
 

During Black History Month, the students connected these words to changemakers such as Ms. Bridges, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Matthew Henson, Katherine Johnson, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Dr. Gladys West.
 

Adults: how many of those names do you know?
 

In third grade, these students’ changemakers work will include research projects and performances that bring the changemakers’ stories to life.
 

It’s all part of a schoolwide curriculum that will eventually send these students as eighth graders to Georgia and Alabama to meet with activists and advocates making differences in their own communities.
 

That trip is followed by four weeks of service in Rhode Island schools and agencies.

Then, they graduate, ready to start changing the world full time.