My mom is from New Bern, NC and she says words funny. I noticed at an early age that my mom said “foe-wah” when she meant “four.” She says tons of things in a humorous way, just a kooky word twisting way. I don’t know if this has an effect on the way I teach or if it’s some long buried secret origin of my love of words, but my family goofs on my mom and her sayings and the way she talks. My parents had a huge impact on my love of reading, and because they always felt they were struggling for money, they wanted me to work hard and get a good education so I wouldn’t have those struggles. Things didn’t work out that way, but no one is perfect.
My mom likes reading trashy romance novels and I always saw her reading. I inherited her love of reading crap, but crossed it with my dad’s obsession with baseball, minus the baseball. I remember my dad reading to me when I was a kid because he followed along the words with his middle finger. My mom took me to the comic book store every week. My parents had the time to be with me and they had the money that allowed me to have an obnoxious and expensive hobby. My students don’t have those opportunities and it saddens me. I don’t care if they ever learn what a Dementor is or the Infinity Gauntlet, but I very much want them to experience the joy that I felt when I found out what those things were. Many of their parents want the same thing for their kids that my parents want for me, but due to economics, society, and maybe even genetics the cards didn’t line up in their favor.
Here's a link to an article in the new Our State magazine about Eastern Vs. Western BBQ. A topic my family likes to argue about and I feel it exemplifies my mom's NC Eastern-ness. Also the new Our State has an article by UNCG's own Michael Parker, so there's that too.
I think it's hard for some of us to come to terms with the fact that we were privileged as children. We had parents that could feed our passions, as well as our bellies.
ReplyDeleteI feel like when I was a kid, hearing about families that had little to eat was such a rare thing. Is it more prevalent now, or were we simply shielded as children?
Many kids just aren't going to grow up with the same luxuries, due to a shrinking middle class. But fortunately, reading is free and can allow kids to just be kids.
I agree with Erica's comments. I came from a very affluent district when I was growing up that still is very affluent, but I recently learned that there are over 200 homeless children in the district.
ReplyDeleteAll of my teaching has been at schools where like you said, the students do not have the same opportunities that I had when I was growing up. The key I have always found is just to remember that they have the same right to learn as any other student.
This is very true, Luke.
ReplyDeleteI come from an area in New York that is very poor. My family wasn't too bad off, because both of my parents had the opportunities to go to college and get into good careers, but a lot of my friends' parents did not. A lot of my friends' families struggled to make the daily ends meet.
I always thought that they deserved the same as myself and my family. And as teachers, Brooks, we have that ability to share with our students the joys we had, that they simply couldn't get.