Easter: It's so much more than a bunny

"Are you suppose to look like a chick," asked one helpful
4th grader, "because you actually look  more like a squirrel."

"Mrs. Mosiman..." a small, slightly-sulking voice asked softly, "don't you like Easter?" I admit I was taken aback (rather than affronted...hashbrown...oops...I mean hash tag #Having fun with language). I LOVE Easter! Where on earth would my little honey have even gotten that idea? "We'll talk about this as soon as you finish your ten reading comprehension questions covering main idea, theme and perspective," I whispered encouragingly. As I began my math lesson on how to recognize improper behavior in fractions, I reassured my little dumplings that I was all about the bunny. I almost dropped my class set of fraction strips at their confused reactions. "Why the frowns, clowns?" I said, pausing to take a seat. "Well, we made those neat Groundhog's day cupcakes and Groundhog's Day isn't even a real holiday," one student observed. "And we made jointed leprechaun puppets even though most of us aren't even Irish," another one pointed out. "And remember how most of us were irrevocably disfigured hot-gluing magnetic tea-lite snowmen for Christmas?" paraphrased my word-smith.

They were right. I had short-changed Easter. I wonder why? It might be the looming state tests lumbering towards us like lines of elephants, ready to squash us flat if I failed to teach my darlings the symmetrical points of a rhombus. A more probable cause might be that Easter in public school depresses me a bit. I don't mind the side-trappings of Santa and flying reindeer and gifts galore at Christmas because most kids have at least a rudimentary idea of what Christmas is really about. Easter is trickier. As a Sunday School teacher, I'd taught about the empty tomb using an Easter egg. I've explained the Easter story with jelly beans. In public school, it really IS all about the bunny and the basket. But my overlooking it altogether wasn't the answer either. The rhombus was going to have to wait.

I cracked out the paints and paper. As we sat, side-by-side, discussions began about the up-coming

school break. Some kids were as excited about visiting Grandmas as others were about visiting Mickey Mouse. One by one, they showed me their careful drawings of a bunny and, like Adam, I christened each creature. "He shall be named Barney," I declared, "This one is Archibald. And this is Poppy." As the child headed back to his seat, I thought to accentuate the correct spelling of that particular name, pleased that so many kids quickly caught my implied joke. "That's okay, Mrs. Mosiman," my artist said back snappily, "I was going to color him brown anyway." We howled. 

"What's your favorite part about Easter, Mrs. Mosiman," asked one of my cherubs, digging through my feather container. I bit my tongue as an ode to Russell Stover Marshmallow bunnies immediately came to mind. It's a white lie for Jesus, I thought quickly, ignoring the heavenly frown that tickled my brow. Wait...that was only one of the thousands of flying feathers that were filling the room. (I also ignored any possible symbolic references to the Holy Spirit.) "I love going to church on Easter Sunday," I said, bracing myself for the inevitable lightning strike as a) I hate getting up early and b) I hate getting dressed up. "Ooooo...me too," squealed my 4th grader, "My mom and I are going to go shopping for my Easter dress this week!" And suddenly, there was at my paint-splattered table, a host of students enthusiastically talking about Easter (the REAL Easter), debating if Christmas was when Jesus was born or if Easter was when Jesus was born and hearing the child who may one day be an evangelizer or a WWE ring announcer straighten everyone out by insisting that both views were right but technically Jesus was RE-BORN on Easter. And just like that, Easter was re-born in Mrs. Mosiman's classroom. As for the rhombus...so far, it's only reference point is the punchline of a joke. Why did the mathematician get lost, I asked. Because he got on the ____________.