Happy ThanksLiving

"...I am going to explain how I am going to make the world a better place, for if we want to honor what we are  thankful for, we have to be willing to give to those who don’t have that which we are grateful for ."

For the past few weeks, I have seen many friends post the many wonderful things they are thankful for.  It is amazing how truly blessed we are when we take a good look at the things we have and stop focusing on the things we want.  Part of me sees a horrible irony in that we spend one day (or a month) being thankful and follow it up by a day (or weekend) of greed.  People push and shove their way into stores to get the bargains, often at the expense of life or limb.  People are rude on the roads, in store lines, and in parking lots.  And now, as if that were not bad enough, the stores have graciously allowed people to start their streak of greed on-line, Thanksgiving Day.

While many of my friends posted their thanks daily, I pondered every day about what I have to be thankful for.  I have many things to be thankful for…enough for every day and beyond.  But, what I am going to do is take the time state one thing I am thankful for and why.  Then I am going to explain how I am going to make the world a better place, for if we want to honor what we are  thankful for things, we have to be willing to give to those who don’t have that which we are grateful for .

I am thankful that my children go to a school with a library.

Because my children have a library at school, the have access to thousands of books every day.  The library gets more and more books every year through the support of the Scholastic Book Fair, run by the PTO.  Their library has funding through school money.  The purchasing of books is not a problem, but rather, the place to put the books that they do have.

I teach at a school that has no library.  My students are too poor to buy books.  They have no money to take the metro to the public library.  How are these children supposed to learn to read without books when the most important thing to do in becoming a reader is to read?  To get good at anything, we must practice. 

Because I want to be an agent of change, because I believe so fully in the power of books in the hands of children, I am not going to settle for thanksgiving, but rather engage in thanks”living”.  I am going to try to find a way to put books in the hands of my students.  I would like to find a way for them to have a library, even if it is small.  Every school should have a library…EVEN IF it is at risk of not getting the books back.  For children to become readers, they need books.  They need books that engage, books with characters like them, books that have the correct readability level.  I will help them to get these things starting now.  I want to make a difference. I want to live in Thanksliving.