During a break today, one of my students came up and said, "I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you pronouncing my name correctly. I never had any idea how much it mattered to me, because nobody has ever cared enough to try before."
His name is Alejandro. How freakin hard is that?
He said his kindergarten teacher made fun of his name, his teachers always told him his name is "Alexander" because his real name isn't acceptable.
TAMI! SEE HOW MUCH THE SCHOOLS HERE NEED YOU???!!!
This is heartbreaking and so sad. He's 23 years old and I'm the first teacher who has, he says, cared enough to try? He said it impacts him on so many levels - that he is more tuned in and engaged because he feels validated by me.
Every day I get more and more worried about bringing the girls here. I guess less worried for them than worried for me - because of the jail time I will have to do when I hurt any person who tries to invalidate them in any way.
1 comment:
What??? That's crazy! I think having spent any time in SoCal...we get used to the mix of cultures available everywhere here, spoiled by all kinds of everything, but in a good way, heh heh. =) I hear parts of the US that don't have that mix, and it always seems so perplexing...but it's out there, it must be, because you just found a real example!
I have an Alejandro in my classroom. He prefers to go by Alex, unfortunately, though I like Alejandro more and will call him that once in a while, heh heh. I have an Amairamy too, and she prefers Amy, but I try the A-mai-e-rah-mie when I get the opportunity, ha ha ha. =)
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