What Can One Little Person Do?

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What can one little person do?

Written by Mary Nolin, with inspiration from Julie Moulton, Patrice Pinette, and the students at Keene Community Education

What can one little person do? This question was the premise for a recent Connections book discussion series by English as a Second Language students at Keene Community Education (KCE) this past April. Led by their teacher, Julie Moulton, and their longtime Connections facilitator, Patrice Pinette, students explored four books that challenged students to consider What is a “good” person? Can I make positive changes in my community? And finally, what can one little person do?

Utilizing the book, Three Questions by Jon J. Muth with inspiration from Leo Tolstoy, students considered how to be a good person with three questions: When is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one? What is the right thing to do? These questions were carried through the next two books, Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson and Wangari’s Trees of Peace by Jeanette Winter as students explored the ways in which one person can make positive change in the world. Concluding with A Chair For My Mother by Vera Williams, students saw the small ways in which people can help each other, whether through collectively saving money in a jar to buy a chair or a community coming together to support a family after a fire devastates their home.

As a culmination to their Connections series, and led by the guitar and creative flair of their teacher, KCE students created their own song version of “What can one little person do?” with a chorus originally written by Sally Rogers. For their song, students learned it in both English and their native languages with lyrics inspired by the lessons and characters from the Connections books they had just read. Below is a video of them performing a portion of their song and the full song lyrics in English and Portuguese, one of the native languages of the students in the class. Other lyrics were translated into Spanish and Chinese to help all students learn the song and remember the important themes and people from their Connections books.

What can one little person do? What can one little me or you do? What can one little person do To help this world go around? One can help another one And together we can get the job done What can one little person do To help this world?   Wangari Maathai was sad Things in Kenya were really bad She saw people cutting all the trees So she planted with her friends Rows of trees that had no ends And they planted 30 million trees of peace   What can one little person do? What can one little me or you do? What can one little person do To help this world go around? One can help another one And together we can get the job done What can one little person do To help this world?   Little Mary she was kind She knew her neighbors wouldn’t mind If she picked the berries growing in the sun So she filled a big, brown bowl Gave them to a neighbor and it pleased her soul And from there happiness spread to everyone.

O que uma pessoa pequena podê  fazer? O que um pouco de mim ou de voce  pode fazer? O que uma pesoa pequena pode fazer Para ajudar este mundo a girar? Um pode ajudar o outro E juntos Podemos fazer o trabalho O que uma pessoa pequena pode fazer Para ajudar este mundo?   Wangari Maathai estava triste As coisas no Kenya estavam realmente ruins Ela viu as pessoas cortando todas as àrvores Então ela plantou com seus amigos Fileiras de àrvores que não tinham fim E eles plantaram 30 milhões de àrvores de paz   O que uma pessoa pequena pode fazer? O que um pouco de mim ou de voce pode fazer? O que uma pesoa pequena pode fazer Para ajudar este mundo a girar? Um pode ajudar o outro E juntos Podemos fazer o trabalho O que uma pessoa pequena pode fazer Para ajudar este mundo?   A pequena Mary era gentil Ela sabia que seus vizinhos não se importariam Se ela colhesse as frutas que cresciam no sol Então ela encheu uma tigela grande e marrom Deu-as a um vizinho e isso argradou sua alma E dali a felicidade se espalhou para todos

In times when it can feel difficult to know what to do or how to make a change, let us take inspiration from the students at Keene Community Education, and their Connections books, to remember that one little person can do big things!

This Connections series was generously supported by the Mascoma Bank Foundation.