**I didn't have enough space on my camera to take pictures of my rough draft, so while this is typed, it is not meant to be my 'published' version!! :)
"There is always something to be thankful for."
These words were spoken from a father to his son as they sat in a concentration camp watching a Nazi soldier beat an innocent prisoner, like themselves.
"What is there to be thankful for in this?" asked the child, while continuing to watch the horror.
As the father looked towards the Nazi soldiers, he replied "be thankful......
There is always something to be thankful for?
I know how to be thankful when something good happens. When things are going well, when its easy. I know how to be thankful for a gift, when things are fun, exciting, positive. Thankfulness seems natural when things are going right, going well, when I can see the light.
But how can I be thankful for this?
I was thankful, overjoyed, when I got my dream job the day before school started. I was thankful for the mess I inherited - not a single note or piece of curriculum to be found and a newly combined 6/7/8 grade class waiting to be taught. I am still thankful for all that came with this gift! I am thankful for the long hours, the lack of sleep. I am thankful for the fight to save our beloved school and for the way it was saved. I am thankful that it turned around, and for the even longer hours, less pay, new responsibilities, new frustrations, and the new vision that came with it. I am thankful for the unity in the community, and for the miraculous amount of money that came out of nowhere, even though we could have done without it. I am thankful that we met our enrollment benchmarks given by downtown. I am thankful that for every reason they tried to give for shutting us down, we proved them wrong. I am thankful for the family that we had become! I am even thankful for the new wrinkles I developed over these incredible two years, because the kids and school made me smile every moment of every day.
But how can I be thankful now?
Now that the light has been stolen. When those who don't know or agree with our vision make a decision based on lies and politics. How can I be thankful when the unjust has stolen what was right and good? How can I be thankful when those who never even stopped by or took time to learn and see the truth, closed our school? How can I be thankful when they changed the locks, packed up my things, my dreams, and never even gave me a chance? How can I be thankful when they haven't even spoken to me? How can I be thankful knowing our precious students lost their safe haven, that those who had found us and found new hope and refuge from bullies and hatred have been rejected. How can I be thankful when our dream, our home, our family has been shattered? How do I give thanks for the lies and deception? How can I be thankful for the pain and sorrow, the deep longing and the feelings of loss? How can I be thankful when something so right was stolen by something so wrong?
"What is there to be thankful for in this?" asked the child while continuing to watch the horror.
As the father looked towards the Nazi soldiers, he replied "be thankful......that you are not like them."
There is always something to be thankful for.
That is very powerful writing, and you did a great job of expressing your emotions in your writing. It is sad how political education can be, when it should be about what is the best choice for children. It makes me wonder why they closed your school, and where you are now. That is the only suggestion, if there is a way to elude to why your school was closed without compromising the flow of your piece.
ReplyDeleteThis is an emotional writing piece! Through your writing I can tell you are very passionate about your job and what happened to it. The way you started and ended your writing was very powerful. I also would have the same suggestion as Rae about weaving in why the school closed. It seems unfathomable they would close a school. What are you doing now that your school closed and what happened to all your students? Thank you for sharing your writing with us and it's sad to read whoever shut you down didn't bother to listen to your side.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the ideas!! I could use some help!! They closed the school - I know this will sound like it could just be emotion - but the truth is that it was purely a powerplay. I would love to put it into the writing - but I'm not sure how - maybe someone has a suggestion? I have a lot of documentation as to the lies that were told.....the people up top didn't agree with our direction when we changed the school the year before....even though we knew we had to change and St. Pat's Church people all agreed we had to do something or else the school would close...we decided to downsize and start building up again into a Montessori...the Bishop did not agree with our decision and said it wouldn't work...it did, better than we had hoped not only financially but also we had people wanting to come....then the Bishop switched our Priest who was only 3 years into a 6 year term and had been leading the councils and brought in a Priest who is 3 years from retirement, sick and didn't want a school. There was no talking to any of us on the staff, the parents, or the council, he made the announcement he had decided to close the school...so the reason I don't know how to express why it was closed is because it truly shouldn't be!!!!! Any ideas?!!! I don't want to come off as speaking only out of emotions, because there are facts!! If anyone has ideas, I'd love to hear!!!
ReplyDeleteI really like this piece of writing, especially when you use consecutive and related questions to make a paragraph and how you interwove your experience with the father-son dialogue. I wonder if you can submit your writing to local newspapers for publishing so that more people know you and your school's dilemma, and maybe there will be people who have good ideas for your current situation.
ReplyDeleteWow this piece is full of emotion! I saw you response and how you wanted to add in more information about how this happened. I wonder if you could try writing about this in a newspaper article style or even like an editorial piece. This way you can add in fact but some opinion as well. I've never written an editorial piece before so I don't have advice on that, but it's the first thing I thought.
ReplyDeleteExcellent writing!
Thank you for the great advice Jennifer!!!
ReplyDelete