Day 9
An interesting activity I encourage you to do with your children: Ask them to draw a monster. And see what they imagine. In 1st grade today we were learning about the body (I have 1 head. I have 2 arms, etc) and the Spanish teacher instructed them to use the parts they knew and draw a monster. As we waited for their creations to manifest themselves on paper in scratches of color, my mind wandered, wondering, why do we imagine someone with only 1 arm to be a monster? Or someone with 3 legs? I realized we were indirectly doing a lesson on what constituted humanity, while incidentally insulting the entire disabled population. Not too P.C. But, it’s also curious that a monster is created out of disparate human body parts. A monster is a mutation of the normal body. But still there is the trace of humanity at its core.
Humanity, subjectivity and the Self are all hotspots for me in Anthropology, provoking questions and ruminations, drawing me back to grad school. Someone once questioned why I thought studying humanity, subjectivity as well as humanitarian rights was pressing and urgent, wasn’t the environmental crisis bigger, wasn’t the war in the middle east more explosive? I could have answer yes to all of those questions. But I didn’t. Understanding humanity and the self is the utmost important thing we can teach the children. If we can erase the fallacious boundaries dividing the human from the inhuman we can rid the world of atrocities such as the Holocaust, genocide, prejudice, racial profiling, hate crimes, and caste systems that demonize lower classes. Accepting the other, not just understanding the other begins at the point in which one can recognize a common humanity.
I’m in a class with 6 year olds teaching them about themselves and about what it is to be human. Their parents and their grandparents lived during an era when Franco dictated who was deserving of humanity. Millions disappeared from the streets, taken by the secret police. It’s a history few Spaniards care to talk about. Why is it important that I begin with something so basic as the Self with these children? An understanding of the Self can engender an understanding of the Other, as I said before. And if they can learn to lovingly gaze upon other people, different from themselves, then the temptation to emphasize the differences between them and to criminalize such differences will abate. Franco would never be able to manipulate the minds of the people, much like Hitler, the understanding of humanity was firmly rooted in the people’s minds. There would be no prejudices to play off of, no marginalized group to target, because the children would have grown up to become adults who wholly understand humanity, and know that being a Spaniard is where it begins , not where it ends.
And so to relish the sound of a communal laughter, we played the hokey pokey.
I can’t emphasize enough how much the inability to effectively communicate impedes one’s confidence and general mental state. It is so easy to slip into a foul mood here, because I can’t understand a word of the conversation at break time or because the kids don’t understand my English or my Spanish for that matter. So much of the day a feeling of discontentment hangs over me. I’m never sure if the kids have actually learned anything, if I used the time productively and if they even cared about what I said. But today I had a moment that almost made me cry. One of my beloved 1st graders came running up to me in the teacher’s lounge after school, dragging he mother behind her. Her mother, a bit out of breath, smiled and said that her daughter had excitedly insisted that she meet me. She told me her daughter absolutely loves English, she practices it at home all the time, teaching her young sister and that she has had so much fun in class with me. I tried to stammer in Spanish something grateful and celebratory of her wonderful daughter, but was so off guard I wasn’t sure if I said “Ella es muy lista” or “Ella está muy lista” (She is very smart or She is very ready)…but I managed to say something that made the mom smile and blush, saying that yes, she was proud of her hardworking daughter. “Muchas gracias” is a phrase I’ve overused here and so luckily it’s always at the tip of my tongue. I chased the pair away with my many thanks, glad she was doing so well in school. This moment reminded me that you really never know the effect you have on another. And it makes me a convert for life to the religion of The Power of Positive Thinking. I will go to class believing they are learning, that I am teaching them well, and that they are becoming better English speakers.
I encourage you all, if someone has done something to make you happy, or help you out, please tell them how it affected you. It can make such a difference. And also, never give up the hope that what you are doing matters. Make sure your life is worth while. You decided your level of fulfillment. For me, that means showing up to each class with extra energy and abounding positivity because I know that the kids will eventually understand me, and I know that I am the foundation from which they will build their fluency. I’m part of their journey and I will make sure they remember the time we walked and learned together.
There are many of you who are indelibly in my thoughts (and influencing my decisions) because of what you said or what you did, when you didn’t have to. And I want you to know that.
Peace and so much love.
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