I sometimes feel so cloistered in my life. It is so easy for me to block out or forget the atrocities that are going on around the world every single day.
I am a graduate student, a teacher, and a woman, and those opportunities do not exist for so many young girls. I hate that my students take for granted the opportunities that they have been handed. I hear my students complain that they are made to go to school, and then I see teachers and students beheaded for that very same right.
More so my heart breaks for the generation of girls not allowed to go to school.
As of January 15, the Taliban forbade girls in Swat Valley, Pakistan from attending school. Times has a heart wrenching video that follows one 11-year-old in her last 48 hours before the schools shut her out.
It's about 15 minutes, but I plan on editing it a bit and showing it to my students. My motivation is not just a sappy, after school special moment where my students realize they actually love school, but rather that it will affect my smart, already motivated ones to realize THIS, unfortunately, is the world in which they are coming of age, and they will be the ones having to make changes.
And to not take dreams for granted.
1 comment:
There's a great TFK article, from last October (I think) about girls going back to school over there. Also, check out the book Four Feet, Two Sandals, if you want to extend your lesson with a picture book. :)
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