"I really appreciated how engaged and motivated he was as a teen because he was only 19 at the time but was also so involved with the Civil Rights Movement and activism in general." -Seventh-grade student.
"This really stuck with me because he said it so matter-of-factly, the fact that he wouldn't go to Vietnam just to kill people he didn't even know. No one has ever talked that clearly to me about that." -Eighth-grade student
"One thing I found interesting in what Peter Kellman talked about was the idealism and energy of youth and how it differs from that of adults." - Seventh-grade student
The above are a few thoughts seventh and eighth-grade students shared after Peter Kellman visited their class. Peter took part in the Selma march for Voting Rights, participated in the Committee for Non-Violent Action; was heavily involved in protesting the Vietnam War (for which he was briefly exiled in Canada), and was a key labor movement activist in Maine. Speaking with him was a unique opportunity.
Prior to his visit, seventh and eighth-grade students had been studying the Selma March and watched this short documentary.
7-8 teacher, Pete Nowak shared afterward:
It felt like this was a real opportunity to link up big historical moments with an individual story -- to add a face and a real person's feelings to something we've all heard so much about.
It was especially auspicious to find someone who always had hope and the optimism to work for positive change at a time when many of us are feeling hopeless.
He talked to the kids about being a kid himself, about following his heart and doing what was needed rather than having some overarching idealistic plan.
He asked the kids about themselves and had them talk about their families -- he made his story feel like it's part of a bigger story we all share.