In light of the historical inauguration today, I asked a class of 3rd graders to write 10 suggestions for President Obama. All twenty of these students are immigrants or children of immigrants from Mexico or another South American country, hence the grammar and spelling errors in their writing. Despite that, their wishes and messages are loud and clear… I never cease to be amazed by the little ones surrounding me…
10 Suggestions for President Obama
by Jennifer Mendoza, 8 years old
1. Give papers to Mexican people for immigration, like my parents.
2. Do not send any more soldiers.
3. Do not be mean with all the people of the United States.
4. Give money to poor people.
5. Give things like books to schools.
6. Fix Houses because in my house water goes in the house.
7. That people that work a lot pay them lots of money.
8. That people that go visit their family do not come hiding in a car or through mountains.
9. Give better jobs to Mexican people.
10. In my school the computers work, but sometimes they don’t work.
10 Suggestions for President Obama January 21, 2009
Librarian of the Day February 25, 2008
Believe it or not, I am the librarian of the day at the elementary school that I sometimes work at. Contrary to the common misconception, being a librarian might just be one of the most pleasant jobs in a school, in my opinion. It is pleasant, because you get to READ to kids. The effects stories have on kids, no matter the age, is magical to discover. Even the most defiant student can be grabbed and kept on the carpet for a straight 15 minutes, maybe more, depending on age, if the story is good and being told in an animated way. Kids being intrigued by knowledge and learning is probably one of the most beautiful things. Their little faces looking up at the pages, anticipating for the turn of page, their little crisscross-apple-sauced legs, oh… so adorable and pleasant. It all creates a very warm and fuzzing feeling inside the heart of this librarian.
Books, words, pictures, and story-telling… The magical power of a librarian!
Children & Noodles…Life can be difficult! July 25, 2007
Coincidentally, Alex and I were sandwiched between two different 3 year olds on either side of our table at Noodle Theory, one of our usual local noodle joints. Throughout dinner, we were both thoroughly fascinated by the cuteness around us. The lively little blond girl with the tie-dye tank top to my right kept on initiating conversations with us. First about the “slug bugs” on the road, then about what kind of soup I had, finally announcing her opinion on my soup: “shrimps are yucky!” Like me, she had a bowl of soupy ramen, which she managed to keep mostly inside her bowl. Eventually she decided that her mommy’s udon was more desirable than her noodles and started to eat it one udon at a time with help from her fingers. She proudly picked up each udon, put one end to in her mouth, and sucked the rest of it in like a little snake. So much fun!
On my other side was a little hungry boy. He might be a few months older than the little girl. He was much more focused on his noodles rather than his next table neighbors. He was fully engaged with the process of getting the noodles into his mouth. Clearly, he’d much rather use his hands if his mommy hadn’t kept insisting on the fork. For each bite, he tried so hard to pick up the noodles with his fork, and most of the time, he succeeded. But the tricky part came next, when he tried to put the noodles in his mouth. It was always at this moment that the noodles would slip off his fork and fall, not only off of his fork, but also off of his plate. He’d quickly pick the noodles off his lap or seat with his hands and stuff them into his mouth, satisfied. At some point in the midst of this repeating process, his mommy decided that the problem was caused by the length of the noodle and suggested to cut the noodles shorter. This was when the little boy started to protest, half-crying, “its not too long!” “it’s not messy!” So cute!!
With the ever so evident noodle struggles facing both of my little table neighbors, I suddenly realized, it is difficult to eat noodles properly as a 3 year old. As an adult, we take so many things for granted. Sometimes it takes little reminders around us to appreciate the smallest accomplishments in life.
Just how did we learn to eat noodles anyway?
