When your children are little the challenges seem daunting. There are challenges with breastfeeding and growth charts. There are RSV illnesses that make you spend the night outside an oxygen bubble containing your little baby. There is true panic and fear that they will be healthy. Then they get older and those moments change. You worry they will fall. You hope they don't find choking hazards. Then they get even older. You hold your breath as they learn to ride bikes, swim for the first time and head off to first days of school. You hope that they learn well and will develop on time. It is in these moments you realize that other stuff....well....that was the easy part. Now the adventure begins. Now conversations are about being picked on, hurt feelings, mean kids, new fears and night terrors. Awkward moments are spent explaining new bodies and growing up and the damn birds and darn bees. It gets trickier. More sensitive. Plus, now as you speak...as you pass along your ideals about this world...they listen. Hard. So you have to be careful to send the right messages. You have to speak up for things and take stands. You have to teach honesty, integrity and courage. Each day there seems to be a lesson...whether tiny or huge... that you can teach. Within the pillars of ideology we must also explain what is wrong...what is unjust...what is unfair. Seeds get planted while children are seedlings themselves...and one must be careful of what kind of tree is growing.
I don't preach by any means but that doesn't mean I don't cover the hard stuff. I make some things so matter-of-fact that they never need to be an issue. I embrace diversity in all aspects of life and as I show an attitude of acceptance I can only hope it becomes as normal as breathing to them as it is to me. I saw the movie, The Help, in the theater a while back. I loved it. I didn't find it patronizing or preachy though some have disagreed. What I was sure of though was that it would be a wonderful way to show a little girl what things were like without simply trying to explain it. The cinema as well as literature can be a wonderful medium for education. Tonight we were able to stay up late because school is on break for the next few days. We lined up our next Netflix delivery to be able to watch this movie. She loved it. Her big brain and huge spirit already understand the lesson that was being taught.
I didn't realize today was a very special day in history and find it quite amazing that the topic of today's life lesson tied in so appropriately. Those are the moments...when things line up...that I know I am on the right path. She will have questions tomorrow and I will answer as best I can. She is smart and kind and compassionate and will want to know the why and how of this world. The questions are a sign that the trunk is getting strong. Her character are the limbs as they grow out toward the sunlight...full and vast and able to withstand the winds as well as sway in the breezes.
"The function of education is to teach one to think
intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that
is the goal of true education.
"
Martin Luther King, Jr
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