Hello world,
Tonight I write to you snuggled up under the tight embrace of warm covers, sipping relaxing fruit flavoured tea in an effort to sooth the tickle in my throat. Brianne and I came down with a rather unpleasant cold on Thursday, which made our regular getting up at 5am to get to our school for 8 am rather un-enjoyable. But colds aside, I managed to have a very interesting week. Beginning on Wednesday, we were met with a student strike upon arriving at the school. Due to the economic crisis in Spain, education has received numerous cuts to public education. The students and staff informed me that last week there was a high school student strike in Vallencia that became quite violent due to police reaction. On Wednesday students from all over Barcelona and surrounding areas gathered at Placa Catalunya in the heart of Barcelona to not only protest the lack of funding being provided for their educations, but also to protest the violence committed against their peers the previous week. As interesting as this protest sounded I had to use my good judgement and decided not to attend the protest as it is illegal for foreigners to do so in Spain. Upon looking into the details of the cutbacks to education, I was proud of the students, as were their teachers, who chose to participate in the protest and have their voices heard. The 2nd year Baxillerat students at IES all attended the protest leaving me with an empty classroom but a satisfied mind, knowing these young people had been taught to stand up for what they know to be true.
I had a rather moving experience with another group of 2nd year Baxillerat students this week. We were having a conversation about a story read in class. The story featured two young waitresses, one who was ravishing, the other who was, well, not. The unattractive girl longed for the love or even acknowledgement of a man, while the beautiful girl received gifts and dates from men every day. When a drunk man kisses the unattractive girl she transforms into a new, confident person because she feels that somebody loves her. Sadly when the man returns apologizing for his drunken actions, she returns to her depressed self longing for companionship. The conversation that followed the reading of this story was one of considered thoughts and educated minds. The girls in this group, some who were and some who weren't in relationships, were confident that desire for a relationship was not their only ambition in life. These young women were confident in themselves and have wonderful ambitions to create their lives with. While I've really only just begun to get to know these students, I was mystified to learn how together and strong these young women are. As a young woman myself, I know the importance of instilling confidence in children from an early age. As a teacher I try to find ways constantly, every day to instill confidence in each of my students. While these girls were filling the room with their opinions of life and the beautiful mystery that is this world, I could picture their mothers. What strong mothers these girls must have to have created such wonderfully apt daughters. Mothers who clearly nurtured their children from the beginning of their lives, but also knew when to make their babies learn to walk on their own two feet. These girls and their mothers who danced in my head reminded me of my mother, her strength, her compassion, her creativity and her soul. These girls must have mothers like mine. They must.
This conversation also reminded me of someone I truly love and identify with completely. Sarah Kay. Sarah is a brilliant spoken word artist who is wise beyond her adolescent years. She's the one who inspired me to finally make that piece of paper and turn it into poetry. I've attached Sarah's TED talk in which she performs her work "If I should have a daughter." These girls reminded me of Sarah and her wonderful words.
Enjoy her words, cherish her message.
xoxo
B
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