“Inch by inch, row by row, I’m going to make this garden grow,” sings Dennis Warner, author of Beads on One String.
“Do you have it memorized yet?” he asks the crowd of Oak Hill Community School students.
“Yes!” the students exclaim.
Warner visited Oak Hill to talk about his book in honor of Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) month in October.
After singing several songs with the kids, Warner relays some of his childhood experiences. He describes a time walking down the hallway in school when a boy, out of nowhere, hit him in the face. A teacher who witnessed it grabbed both him and the boy and brought them to the principal’s office.
He continues, “You know everyone looked at me because I was so tall. Everybody thought that because I was tall, I was good at sports, especially basketball. I wasn’t. I was still growing into my arms and legs.”
He goes on to say, “I wore glasses and sat by the same kids everyday on the bus, and they made fun of me for wearing glasses. We didn’t have much money either…Kids made fun of me because of my clothes.”
As the story progresses students lean in a little closer.
Warner says, “The principal finally asked the other boy, ‘Why did you hit Dennis?'”
The student explained that because Dennis was the tallest kid, he wanted to see how tough he really was.
“The principal knew right away that I had nothing to do with it,” states Warner.
After his story, Warner asks the students if they know “Beads on One String”.
“Yes!” they all shout. They had been learning the song and book with their music and classroom teachers with the anticipation of meeting Warner.
The lights are dimmed so that the students can see the book projected on the wall.
“Every man, every woman, boy and girl. We’re one world,” reads Warner. “Do you notice how the illustrations are all silhouettes? We can’t tell what color the people are, can we?”
He reads to a point in the book which shows kids holding a drawing of a tree. He displays a symbol of a peace sign and explains what the symbol means.
Beads on One String portrays how each and every person is connected, how everyone has something in common.
“Notice how the book describes that we are beads on one string, not a string? It gives a different meaning, doesn’t it? We are all connected on one single string, not separate strings,” reveals Warner. Just like the the song, he states, “We are one world.”
Too quickly their time comes to an end. Each student ponders the message shared with them that day and walks out of the gym giving Warner a “soft high five” or a peace symbol, excited to have met him.
