When Isis was born tons of people automatically assumed she would be home schooled. I guess having been a former teacher people thought I would want to teach my own children. Not the case here. I won't get into public education versus homeschooling because I have seen both done well and I have seen both done poorly and there just isn't a right way. But there is one reason, and this story tells it well, why it is so important that my children attend a public school.
Isis has become good friends with a girl named Sarah. Sarah is Kurdish and from what I gather her family immigrated here and travels back to Kurdistan yearly to visit family. Last year when Sarah left Isis cried and cried and cried and wanted to go to Kurdistan to visit her friend. We didn't realize that the trip was only a visit. We didn't realize she was coming back.
Anyway, the two of them ended up in the same class again and Isis tells me again and again how Sarah teaches her to write in Kurdish. A few weeks ago Isis came home in complete empathy. And from my six year old flowed these words...
Today our teacher gave us marshmallows for snack and Sarah tried to give me her marshmallows because Kurdish people can't eat them. But I didn't want Sarah's marshmallows. I wanted her to have them. And my heart felt sad because she couldn't have them.
Hearing words like that flow from a first grader amazed me...that she not only recognized the difference between she and her friend, but that she empathized with her friends disappointment as well. There are things in life we learn because we are taught. There are things in life we find out on our own. And there times in life when both come together.
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