In California, in the 80’s, my children attended a public school just blocks from our home.  It was a very diverse student body because in addition to the many different ethnicities in Southern California, a considerable portion of the children were from other countries.  This was due to the

fact that they were the children of the staff at the City of Hope.  This hospital attracted doctors and other medical professionals from many different places because it was on the cutting edge of research, into finding cures for cancer and other serious illnesses.  

I was not working and so I volunteered in my kids’ classroom.  I was developing a teaching program for children to teach sign language through positive attitudes songs I had written.  So I asked the teachers if I could do this program with the students.  They were thrilled to have me come and share this with their classes.

I started with only a few songs, as I was just beginning to build the repertoire of my newly formed venture.  One of the songs I taught was entitled “You and I Are in This Together.”  The words are:

You and I are in this together,

In this together, 

In this together. 

You and I are in this together,

So why can’t we be friends?

Yes, we can be friends.

Yes, we can be friends.

You and I are in this together.

So we can all be friends.

The second verse was about being nice and the third was being good.  So it was a very simple song to teach in kindergarten with my son’s class and in my daughter’s 2nd grade class.  And it was just the 2nd or 3rd song I had written so far.  But the kids responded very well and we performed these songs to the rest of the school later on, when I had written more songs and was teaching them in other classrooms as well.  The songs became progressively more advanced with additional vocabulary and complexity, but were still within the elementary school parameters.

I thoroughly enjoyed these opportunities to share these positive ideas to a diverse community, and hopefully inspire the students to get along with one another.  This simple message could be beneficial and perhaps encourage more friendships at a time when children were curious about each other.  Of course this was just a very small step toward the valuable relationships we would form throughout our lives.  In an equitable society, we can, and should, be concerned with opportunities being afforded to everybody.  We all need to be heard and considered without antagonism toward each other.  I believe that we all need to listen to each other respectfully and strive to find compromise.  And this is because you and I are in this together, whether we like it or not.