I started my day today with a call
to my grandpa. I wanted to find out the
details of his and my dear grandma’s reading and writing abilities. Sadly, my grandmother is no longer living. He
explained that because she was home taking care of her younger siblings, she
spent two years in sixth grade and another two years in seventh. She never made it past the ninth grade. Still, she could read and write fairly well
given her circumstances. Two months
before her seventeenth birthday she and my grandfather were married. He had graduated from high school and would
complete some college at the University of Maryland and in the U.S. Air
Force. They traveled all over the world
and became fluent in Spanish while living in Spain four years. At that time, my mother was a toddler
learning to speak so her first learned languages were English and Spanish, which
she spoke with a live-in nanny. My
mother earned her bachelor’s degree from a writing intensive college and has
always considered herself a writer. She
has written several short stories as well as poems.
Growing up, my sister and I were always
exposed to writing in our natural day-to-day lives. During the summers in between school, we were
latch-key kids like so many others back then.
To keep us busy, my mom would create worksheets for us to complete,
along with summary assignments of our favorite TV shows.
We loved writing. As we got
older, if we would fight with each other, my mother would have us write essays
about the value of sisterhood. Mom
still has those essays hanging on a wall in her office today. My sister and I both graduated with our
bachelor’s degrees, she obtained a second associates degree and I am now in
graduate school. I give credit once
again to my mother for taking advantage of everyday teachable moments and
role-modeling a love of learning. I plan to follow in her footsteps with my own children and future students!
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| Four Generations |
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