The Reason for the Season

“’I wear the chain I forged in life,' replied the Ghost. 'I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.’”

~ A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

I begin reading A Christmas Carol with my seventh graders today. This week, as I planned out the schedule of my unit, I created an activity asking students to think about Jacob Marley's chain symbolical. This is a vivid image—a warning that we each forge chains that enslave us every time we wrong another. We are literally tied to our past, and cannot escape our wrongs. In our own lives, we have felt our own wrongs weighing upon us like Jacob Marley’s chains.

I gave them the assignment of creating their own chain. Like Marley, they will forge your chain link by link. They will create three links made from any medium they wish (paper, clay, etc), but must be decorated to represent events in their lives that mirror Scrooge’s and Marley’s—events that represent greed and selfishness.

So, I sat down on Monday to create my own chain as an example. As I brainstormed the selfish & greedy things I have done, I realized that Christmas for me has become about crossing items off my wish list. Hence why I have spent a few idle hours browsing the web compiling a hyperlinked list to email to family and friends. So, I crafted a link out of Christmas wrapping paper to represent the times when I expected to recieve, but did not give. Sure, I exchanged gifts, but I usually bought the lowest priced items.
More importantly, I did not give those in need presents.

Yesterday, our school's Student Council came out with the names of children in our school who need to be sponsored for children. Then it hit me-- here was the way to take my assignment from the classroom to the real world. I was going to have my children create their chains, then do some sort of act to break the chain, like Scrooge does at the end of the novella. And I was going to be the real-life example.

I took the name of a child, Briana, who wanted nailpolish and a manicure set for Christmas. I decided to go one step further:

I also adopted a child from the Connecticut Education Association (our teacher's union at the state level) for their Holiday Bear program. My child is a nine year old boy from an inner city school, and I can't wait to go shopping for him this weekend! Sure, I could be using that money to buy myself or my family something, but my family is fortunate enough to live comfortably, have enough money for presents and holiday feasts, and will not miss extravagant gifts that I could buy them with that money.

I hope that at this time of year, you are all giving thanks for what matters most--family, love, and security.

"Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him."