Vardaman Schools’ cafeteria has been invaded by butterflies – thousands, with thousands more still expected. But there’s no cause for alarm, only inspiration.
More than 15,000 butterflies have now been created by Jessica Easley’s eighth grade class, other Vardaman students and many more as part of an in depth study of the Holocaust.
Easley was looking for a means to teach the unit with maximum impact on her students. She drew inspiration from the book, “I never Saw Another Butterfly.” It’s a collection of children’s drawings and poems from Terezin Concentration Camp in 1942–1944. Approximately 15,000 children passed through the camp with only around 100 surviving. The poems and pictures in the book show the daily misery of these uprooted children, as well as their courage, optimism, hopes and fears.
“We decided to focus on this particular camp and that’s how we came up with the 15,000 number,” Easley said.
Every individual butterfly is decorated in its own unique way to represent a different child. Easley said she sees the impact it’s having on her students, but believes the biggest lesson is still to come.
“I don’t think it has completely sunk in because we still have thousands of butterflies to be strung and hung in the cafeteria, but they’re beginning to see the impact 15,000 kids can make just by looking at the butterflies,” she said. “The more they read and learn about it, their hearts break for these people and they emphasize with them.”
Last month, Rev. Allen Dearing from Lewis Memorial UMC in Calhoun City, visited the class. He had toured this exact concentration camp not long ago and he shared photos and stories he had researched.
“That got to a lot of them,” Easley said.
As word spread through the schools and then on social media of the class’ efforts, more butterflies began showing up.
In addition to students in all grades at Vardaman, other schools in the county have supported with lots of butterflies and even schools outside Calhoun County and out of state including Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and Connecticut.
“The far reaching impact of this has been amazing to see,” Easley said. “Several church groups have sent butterflies to us, and the community overall has been very supportive. Amanda Gulledge’s art classes (at the Career and Technical Center) made us two beautiful displays.”
Easley’s class has moved beyond their lesson on the Holocaust, but the butterflies continue to come in and gradually get strung and hung from the cafeteria ceiling.
“We get together in our off time and try to put them together. We want to get every one of them in the cafeteria,” she said. “Most of these kids haven’t seen 15,000 of anything in one spot, so it makes a visual impact more so than just reading about it and me throwing out numbers to them.”
The class surpassed their goal of 15,000 butterflies this week, but the introspection and the lessons from the project are still coming.
“I think one of the lessons that has really come from this is the importance to stand up for what you know is right,” Easley said.
They plan to enjoy the butterflies in the cafeteria for the rest of the school year, after that, Easley is trying to decide what to do with them.
“I will put as many up in my classroom as I can when we’re ready to take them down. Hopefully I can come up with some kind of display,” she said. “I can’t just throw them away. I’ve become attached. I want to keep them up as a reminder.”