if you can read this, consider yourself lucky.

I love classes at ACU because at their very core, they are about our spiritual relationship to what we're studying. And that's amazing to have that integrated into the classroom on a daily basis.. So with that in mind.. let me tell you a story.




In one of my amazing education classes, our teacher read us an excerpt from Thirty Two Third Graders and One Class Bunny by Phillip Done. Now, I actually haven't read this book. But I'm ordering it from Amazon (unless someone has a copy and would let me borrow it!?), and I've had a lot of friends who have read it and loved it. And the story she read to us was about a teacher (the author of the book) who had a student in his class, Ronny, who was struggling with reading. To improve his reading skills, the teacher suggested reading at home with his parents. But Ronny's mom seemed uncooperative. The teacher sent home articles about why reading with your children at home is important, made countless phone calls to Ronny's mother asking her to read with him, and lent him books from his class library to read with his mother. Well weeks and weeks went by, and Ronny still reported that his Mother wasn't reading with him at home. She was just "too busy" or was rushing off to a night class.


Well long story short, the teacher showed up to school one evening to help with registration for adult-night classes. And there is Ronny's mom. The teacher assumes she is taking a pottery class or something along those lines. Ronny's mom asked the teacher for help with filling out the registration forms because she had "forgotten her glasses at home." After she leaves for her class, the other lady helping with registration points out that actually, Ronny's mom is there for a beginning reading class, and she is just one of many parents who had also "forgotten their glasses at home."

That just makes me hurt. Like the kind of hurt that really gets me down in the pit of my stomach. And makes my eyes get all blurry.

And it just makes me realize, how truly blessed I am that I grew up in a family that values education. That I've gotten to go to school since age 4. That I can read. Women in our country haven't always been this fortunate. And yet I sit and complain and tweet about how annoying school is, and how I'm "soooo overrr" school, and how I just can't wait to graduate- when I should be so truly thankful for the opportunity I'm presented with.


I don't know. Maybe it's just the teacher in me that has such high regard for the education system. But imagine trying to get by in this world without the ability to read.



In completely separate news: I'm HOME. And taking a summer school class- and I'm really trying to work on the no complaining thing when it comes to that! Work starts in a couple weeks and I couldn't be more excited!


..And I just got done watching the Grey's Season finale. So many tears. I won't spoil it for anyone.. but it was good.


xoxo