I accidently found myself with a little job on Monday, working as a para-professional (formerly known as 'teacher's aide') in a school out on the north side of town. Due to not having much on my calendar for that day, and completely loosing all sense of time and place from jet-lag-gy like symptoms of insufficient sleep: I took a Day Labor offer when the phone rang on Sunday night. Knowing that going to an elementary school up in the high-end part of town would not be a hair-pulling experience, I decided: might as well make a few bucks as stay at home and putter around in my p.j.'s all day.
The interesting part is a couple of little five year olds who were obviously Latino. From their appearance of beautiful shiny straight black hair, smooth olive-toned skin and the obvious Hispanic last names, I knew they were products of families from central America. When it came time for each child to get a box of books they are reading individually, the teacher gave me a list of of five students to spend time with. I was to listen to each child read one book - you know: the kind of books that have eight pages and maybe ten words per page, mostly repetitive like 'Goodnight Moon'. This precious, beautiful little girl did not know the sight words most of them can identify. And had no skills for sounding the words out, could not take the words apart, and make a guess, or use the 'picture clue', looking at the illustrations to get an idea as to what the printed matter would be.
When I mentioned it to the teacher, who obviously does not have time to work with individual students, she said that the child (and I guess a brother, who has the same last name) does not hear English at home. So there is no reinforcement of what she is exposed to in the classroom. Something I never considered: if you don't hear it, to know and understand it/learn it as a common means of communication - there is no way you will have the ability to use it. I guess speaking the 'language' of mathematics or 'language' of computers is the same: I don't understand it as an adult, because it was not put there when I was a malleable child, absorbing information like a sponge. Same could be said of any language that is not primary, though I know some individuals have the ability/gift to easily absorb or learn many other languages, both actual languages and other means of communication like the technical terms of technology or science.
So - in that vein: my blessing of the day was Thankfulness for English. All those teachers over the years who forced me to learn to speak proper English. Who devoted their days to teaching conjugation, who were determined to see that their little subjects in the world of junior high would get subjects and verbs to match up. Insistent that sentences be complete and coherent, starting with a capital letter and ending with proper punctuation. Demanding that paragraphs be properly constructed and intelligible.
Thankful, as usual, to be living in the USA, with the blessings of the Constitution still (mostly) in force and enforced.
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