Posted by Fred.. a long time ago (24.30.53.181) on November 20, 2001 at 21:46:12:
This was posted by Fred a long time ago, and I just felt the need to repost it
- Jeff
--
Sparks of doubt and hope
[ Beth Suryoyo Assyrian
(Othuroyo) Forum ]
Written by parhad on 18 Mar 2001 05:59:42:
A few weeks ago I met with two other's of our people to discuss
what we could begin to think to begin to do. In our community people are
forever
spinning off to start new organizations whenever one person feels
that every pet notion of his isn't being respected. We continue, in this
way, the
fragmentation begun centuries ago when we first turned our backs on
our core values and beliefs as Assyrians, subordinating them to our new
found
religious hopes for a better world somewhere "up there".
Each of us took a turn at explaining what he thought would be a
good direction to begin to lay a foundation. Everything we said was
aimed at simply
finding a direction, a pressure point. None of us had any illusions
about making the slightest actual dent in the mountain of work there is
to do.
One of the suggestions which looked immediately promising was to
make pre-school or day care available to our people in the homes of
those who are
home with their own young children and could care for an additional
three or four. A story was told of an acquaintance who started just such
a facility
and how even the American kids sent there began speaking our
language as the mother wasn't good yet in English. This good woman told
the parents
she would treat the children as her own, even down to the dolma and
kipti she fed her kids.
When parents came to claim their children at the end of the day
they didn't want to leave and all were impressed by the quality of care
and the bonus
experience thrown in for free. Something about the idea was
appealing, is still. We discussed the possibility of researching
agencies in the field to see if
a parent organization could be formed which could supervise and
find responsible adults from our community willing to undertake such
work. It would
be paid work of course and there might be a number of women or men
staying home with children of their own to care for who could use the
extra
income. This kind of thing is going on all over the country.
We even discussed the possibility of designing coloring books and
other supplemental aids to teach our history, legends and even language
to all the
children. Who could object? Other ideas were brought up but this
one stayed in my mind. We agreed to each think it all over before
meeting again. We
should be getting together soon.
My euphoria at this entire idea, spreading itself before my eyes,
was abruptly served a dash of cold water when my wife mentioned a friend
of ours
who had diligently been speaking nothing but our own language with
her young son, only to see him, after the age of six, when he entered
school, lose
all interest and switch to speaking ONLY English. She pointed to
this as an example of how overwhelming is American pop culture in its
appeal to
immature minds especially. The urge to "fit in" and be liked and be
like the others is too strong for most children to resist.
In light of that unfriendly little truth, the evidence of which I'd
seen plenty of examples of, burned a hole through my reverie. What if we
built day care
centers and pre-schools by the hundreds and enrolled our own and
other children...and what if they all enjoyed our language and art and
history and
food and manners...what if we got really good at running several of
these kinds of establishments and got written up in the papers and
interviewed on
television, and all of that stuff...only in the end to find out
that we'd just been involved in a brief, transitory moment the children
would forget all the
faster when exposed to the "exotic" world of pop culture...the
slang, the styles, the eating habits, the sloppy approach to everything
as a manifestation of
how "cool" a kid is.
We were trying to come up with ideas to enhance and preserve our
heritage in the minds and hearts of our children. The sad reality is
that there may not
be a way of doing that, not with this idea at least. But it felt
good while it lasted.
Have to try harder.
-Parhad