Bravo to you! Bravo to teachers like your homeroom one and Mrs. Adams for recognizing needs and fulfilling it! God Bless the worthy Teachers, Mentors and Student Advocates of the world!
My second grade teacher taught me to be proud of my last name. It seems simple, but at a time when Haitians were the butt of every joke and being accused of being the transporters of HIV, it felt easier to pronounce my last name as American-ly as I could get it to sound to avoid the taunting, until I got a Haitian woman for a teacher who not only taught me what was so beautiful about my last name (and I’ve since heard the same sentiment from many a French-speaker in my life), but taught me to take pride in it, pronounce it confidently, and correct anyone who gets it wrong. As I grew up, and met other kids with non-American backgrounds who had the same urge to disguise their names, I was able to see from the outside looking in how taking pride in yourself meant taking pride in everything about yourself, even if some things about you are less common. I now love to find out where people’s names come from–the less common the better because it gives me a glimpse into worlds I may otherwise never have been exposed to.
Bravo to you! Bravo to teachers like your homeroom one and Mrs. Adams for recognizing needs and fulfilling it! God Bless the worthy Teachers, Mentors and Student Advocates of the world!
My second grade teacher taught me to be proud of my last name. It seems simple, but at a time when Haitians were the butt of every joke and being accused of being the transporters of HIV, it felt easier to pronounce my last name as American-ly as I could get it to sound to avoid the taunting, until I got a Haitian woman for a teacher who not only taught me what was so beautiful about my last name (and I’ve since heard the same sentiment from many a French-speaker in my life), but taught me to take pride in it, pronounce it confidently, and correct anyone who gets it wrong. As I grew up, and met other kids with non-American backgrounds who had the same urge to disguise their names, I was able to see from the outside looking in how taking pride in yourself meant taking pride in everything about yourself, even if some things about you are less common. I now love to find out where people’s names come from–the less common the better because it gives me a glimpse into worlds I may otherwise never have been exposed to.
Same here.Love this!!