Brentwood Elementary School Thursday 1st April; (and mini rants).

 

Zion and I had our gig at Brentwood on Thursday 1st April. It's the school which is reeling from a tragedy.  An eight year old girl, riding her scooter to school was killed in a road accident.  We were there (with three other canine therapy teams) to offer solace and comfort to the children -  more about that below.

Brentwood is in an area called Sarasota Springs, which is physically contiguous with the City of Sarasota, but is outside of the City boundaries. (For Sarasota friends: it is roughly east of Beneva; west of Macintosh; south of Bahia Vista and North of Webber). 

For other friends it's an area which you drive by, but never through).

Back to the main story!

The school is very modern; situated on a quiet side street. Z and I visited a class of fifth graders,  outdoors  in a shady and grassy area.

These wonderful children seemed to have no idea why we were there (why would a fifth grader know much about a third grader?)

But Zion strutted his stuff, and the children enjoyed him (or were glad to be out of the classroom for 40 minutes).

RANT One  

A side note.  Approx.  65%  of the children were of Hispanic origin.  They were entirely bi-lingual; unlike their Anglo class mates. I asked one of the Anglo kids if he had picked up any of the Spanish language from his class mates; or if he was learning the Spanish language. "No", he said, "I don't need it in my life right now".

How odd I think.  We expect children from Spanish speaking cultures to be bilingual; but we allow children from English speaking cultures to coast along in their mono lingual isolation.  We are doing them a dis-service. The Anglo students' lives would be enriched should they learn to speak Spanish.

For to know another language is the gateway to knowing, and appreciating another culture, or cultures.  (There are very many distinct and local cultures in the many north American (Mexico);  central American (El Salvador, Honduras etc.); and south American Nation States). They have so much with which to enrich us.

RANT Two

I utterly despise the right-wing caricatures of immigrants from the U.S.A. southern borders as disease bearing and ignorant wet-backs; and as invaders.  Such evil myths.

Here is what I saw at Brentwood. I met lively and winsome young students of Hispanic origin. They were glad to be here and happy to be receiving an education.  Their parents/guardians made sure that they were kitted out beautifully; dressed so appropriately for school.

I "heard" mums and dads saying "you are lucky to be able to go to school, so look good!"

I saw one wee lad who was clearly on his first day of school. He was dressed like a prince. I could see the excitement on his smiling face.

He came into the crowded front office.  We were four teams with four dogs awaiting our assignments.  The staff member asked of him "**are you afraid of dogs".  "No" he said as he trotted off, all smiles,  to be led to his classroom.  I wanted to scoop him up and say "you are going to be just fine!"

(** I wish that the staff member had said "I bet that you like dogs").

Were our visits a success? Apparently so  Here is a message sent to the Director of Volunteers at HSSC.

Brentwood Elementary is very appreciative of the support you provided to their students today. The students are really struggling so their Guidance Counselor is requesting our services again on Monday, April 12th for two other classes from 11:50am-12:30pm. 

Zion and I will be there.