Inspired...

Set your DVRs for June 16, CNN

by Climber Mom

I had the opportunity to see the film Girl Rising the other night (okay a couple weeks ago, I'm a slow blogger). I left inspired and feeling lucky.

The film spotlights the stories of nine unforgettable girls born into unforgiving circumstances. Each of these girls, from India, Peru, Egypt, Haiti, Aphganistan, Siera Leone, Cambodia and Ethiopia, overcome great obstacles to receive an education. They know an education is the only way to a better life and they desperately want to learn.

These girls, and in some cases their families, are an inspiration. While we so often complain about attending school and find ways to skip school, they are sacrificing everything to attend school.

In one story that really touch me, a couple in India has three daughters, and the family lives on the street. There education is not free. But rather than staying in the comforts of their old village or saving their small income for a place to live, their father insisted they leave their rural village for the city, where his daughters could be educated. The family has to pay for each child to go to school, and they have to pay for books and uniforms for each of their daughters. And they pay it. The have no home and often go hungry, but they make sure they pay for school, so their three daughters will have a chance for a better life.

Another girl who survived the earthquake in Haiti desperately misses school, but her mother has no money to send her to the tent school that has been set up nearby. So determined to be educated, she goes everyday and refuses to leave until they teach her. A young girl in Afghanistan is married and a mother at 12 years old. She risks death to tell her story and go to school. But she does it, she believes that strongly, she wants something more for her life.

I left that movie thinking about each of these girls and touched by all of their stories, all different all powerful, all willing to do anything to get an education.

I left thinking, how lucky we are in the United States. Every child in this country has the right, by law, to a free education.Yes, our education system has a lot of problems and there are huge discrepancies in the types of education different school systems offer, but regardless every child in this country can go to school and can learn to read for free.

We still have a long way to go for women in this country to be equally represented in board rooms, to receive equal pay for equal work and for all our classrooms to provide a quality education and to make that education more accessible to all. But compared to others around the world, we are lucky. We all have the opportunity for an education. We have the right and opportunity to choose our future.

I hope that I can instill in my son what a privilege that is and the power that opportunity provides.

I was equally inspired by this story. A woman that works for RTI International, where I work, shot this short video of a little girl in Liberia. Her family had planned to marry her off young as is the custom. But this woman was so touched by this child's passion and desire to learn that she talked to her family and got them to agree not to marry her off. In exchange she is paying for the little girl's schooling all the way through college. Talk about making a difference in someone's life.

These are the stories I will remind myself of when we worry about the perfect school for our child, or complain about how much homework our children get, or stress over his grades. Our first world problems are nothing compared to what these girls and their families face.

According to the film, in the developing world, 66 million girls worldwide are not so lucky, they aren't in school. They are left uneducated, with little opportunity, vulnerable to assault and disease.

But many are finding a way despite all odds. They inspire me.

Girl Rising airs on CNN June 16, set your DVRs, watch it with your children, talk about it.

The one where I explain terrorism to a four-year-old…

By Preschool Mom

I have a four-year-old boy. He asks questions about everything. All the time…

A few months back he started asking where Sesame Street was. It took me forever to realize he was asking this because the theme song asks “Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?” After DAYS of fielding that question, I finally told him Sesame Street was in New York (because it looks like New York City to me) and hoped that would be the end of it. Silly me…that just lead to a lot more questions, like “How do you get to New York?” Answer “An airplane.” Question: “Where is New York?” Answer: “North of here.” Question: “What is north?” Answer: “Don’t you want to go outside and play?”

Not long ago my husband had to go to New York on business and my son’s first question to him was, “Are you going to Sesame Street?” My husband said he wasn’t going to make it that trip; he would wait until our son could go with him. Ironically, he was staying at a hotel in Times Square and one of the first things he saw when he got out of the cab were several Sesame Street characters posing for pictures. I felt vindicated; Sesame Street is in New York after all!

Being a teacher, I frequent our local thrift shop a lot for new books for my classroom. At ten cents a board book you just can’t go wrong. Today I was thrilled to find a children’s book called My New York, and snapped it up for a whopping 75 cents. WooHoo, I thought, a book to answer all the countless New York questions!!! My son flipped through the book without me first, looked up and said “Sesame Street isn’t in here.” I told him I was sure there were lots of other neat things to learn about and sat down to read it with him. It didn’t even dawn on me to check the copyright date of the book, and so I was shocked when the twin towers of the World Trade Center popped up in several sections.  

I could have just glossed over those two tall buildings, but something inside me said no. I know he’s only four, but it seemed to dishonor the memory of all those who died to not tell him a little about what happened. He is obsessed with bad guys right now, so when he pointed out the towers on the map I told him they weren’t there anymore, that really real bad guys knocked the buildings down. I left out the part about the airplanes (because with an upcoming trip to grandma’s I didn’t think TSA would look too highly on a kid talking about planes crashing into buildings) but I did try to explain about how people who didn’t like us did a very bad thing.

Was I wrong to do this? Did the limited information I provided him offer just enough for him to be confused or scared? Honestly, I don’t know. But it was a gut parenting moment where I felt like the truth was far better than the white lie of omission. I want to protect my children as much as possible. I want them to believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Ultimately I want them to remain children for as long as they can. But I can’t ignore the world we live in, and I can’t pretend that it is always a safe place. I think my son needs to know that bad guys can be real and aren’t just characters in a cartoon. After all, that knowledge might one day save his life. 

Note: The edition of the book we read was from 1993. The New Anniversary Edition from 2003 is updated with the words “site of the World Trade Center.”