Caruso Students Find Soul From Soles

When students asked people last year to share something that was in their soul, suggested her students ask them for a sole. 

As her students traveled during the year, Witczak asked them to hand letters to people requesting a story about themselves and include a shoe. Thus, people would be bearing their soul with a sole. 

“Every sole has a story,” Witczak said. “This project gave them a chance to walk in that person’s shoes.” 

Not only is the project unusual, but it is not often a project started in the previous school year can be enjoyed by the same class the following term. That is another part of what makes Witczak’s class so unusual. 

The students mounted a campaign to keep their homeroom together. They got to do that and start opening the packages this year when the shoes began to arrive in Deerfield. 

“We bonded,” Eli Bush said. “We became friends with each other so we decided to stay together.” 

Students Learn About Outgrowing Shoes and People 

One letter in particular arrived from Erica Weber of Wisconsin taught the students a lesson about outgrowing people just like one can outgrow a shoe. Weber sent a letter on a wedding picture but explained how she and her husband outgrew each other leading to divorce. 

“If someone refuses to grow with you, you can outgrow them,” Weber wrote. “It is kind of like a pair of shoes. Even though they couldn’t grow with me, so I have to pass them on, share them with another person out there in the world.” 

Middle school students do a lot of growing personally and physically. Weber’s letter struck a chord because many of them have outgrown things and people. Many of the students understand relationships change. 

“Friendships may not change but you will see other kids more,” Danielle Gottstein said. “When we get older we look for other things in a friendship.” 

Bush was able to relate Weber’s story and Gottstein’s comment to his former fascination with a particular color. 

“Things look different later,” Bush said. “I really liked a pair of neon green shoes. As I got older they still fit but they were out of my mind.” 

Over time, Sarah Goltsman learned how to overcome a juvenile insult and ignore it like an old pair of shoes. She remembered how a friendship fizzled years ago when she felt that person purposely tried to hurt her. 

“She said ‘you’re going to my birthday party and you’re going to my birthday party’ and she pointed to everyone but me,” Goltsman said. “Looking back I don’t think about it anymore.” The person is neither friend nor enemy. 

Letter Describes African Experience 

Another letter that made a strong impression on the class was one of Sarah Losinski who described a youthful adventure in Africa. She found a snake in her tent and was ready to crush it with her shoe before she had second thoughts. She got local help. 

“Upon entering the hut and catching a glimpse of our houseguest he immediately ran out of the doorway,” Losinski wrote. “He returned with a larger snake stick. He told us to wait outside and proceeded to crush the little snake with the stick.” 

The six-inch snake was a black mamba, one of the most deadly poisonous serpents in the world. 

One of the things Witczak wants her students to learn from this project is leadership. In her mind a leader does not have to be an elected official or a head coach, it can be anyone who makes a difference. 

“This tells us leaders can be in the same role as we are,” Ben Michel said. “If you make other people look good without getting attention yourself you are a leader.” 

Miranda Singer found an example of leadership in a poem written by Makesha Walton. Walton wrote in verse about those in need she helps as a volunteer. “I am a volunteer, I help those in fear, those without homes who only roam,” she wrote. 

“She shows what it’s like to help people less fortunate,” Singer said.