Freedom For The Future (Understanding Difficulties and Rights)

Liberty came at a cost.  The men who promoted freedom from Britain to create this great country not only condoned slavery, but also participated in it.  This biography tells the stories of five slaves who belonged to certain famous presidents of this so called "great" country.  It is a very shocking revelation to children and people alike, but it is also very necessary.  To understand more as to why things have not changed for colored people ever since this country's birth, we need to see the truth about the foundation of this country's beliefs.  It never truly believed that all men should be created equal.  And even though attempts were made by Thomas Jefferson to free slaves, they were always loose and eventually shot down.  It is a tough realization for this country to see glorious people that built our country seen as wrongdoers.  However, that is what is necessary for the truth to be seen.  Without the truth, people hide and conform t...

I used to have a stuffed dog toy named Doozer, so that's my fun entry into this story.  It has nothing to do with the story at all.  Now to the book! The Legend of the Doozer Who Didn't is a children's book about a Doozer, which is a species of some sort, that began to stand out and do his own thing.  I would have preferred if the book stayed on that path and allowed the Doozer Who Didn't to be a free-thinking individual who found a different path than the rest of his people.  But it didn't go that way.  The book explained that if you weren't a hard working drone, then you would become a gruesome beast called a Fraggle.  This book is an attempt to scare children (in a fun way) to stay in school and work hard so they wouldn't become an outcast.  As harmless as this book looks, it's actually quite damaging.  There are other things that can be done besides labor and school.  So many opportunities for children to choose from, and this book m...

Friends really are from anywhere and they can be anyone.  They can have interests in things you're scared of or not be interested in what you like.  They can look like anything; big, tall, small, colored, female, male.  Don't be afraid to meet new people, because no matter what they look like or where they're from, people are people and they can end up being your friend.  Keep those eyes and hearts open.

Probably one of the biggest struggles we future teachers will face will be teaching ESL students.  Any time someone is approached with language barriers, they shut down and get flustered.  I've seen it everywhere.  And it is easiest to just stay frustrated and let the person with that barrier to fluster.  That's what most people do and that is what Francisco's (protagonist of the book) teacher did. The whole story Francisco was written off by his teacher and classmates because he didn't understand them and they didn't understand him.  He was treated poorly by a particular student who got mad at him for borrowing his lost jacket and then left on the sideline by his teacher because he didn't capture the lessons.  At the end of the book, it was Francisco's illustration of a butterfly that brought people closer to him.  He finally received recognition from the teacher and the same boy that gave him a hard time earlier.  The point of the book was tha...

This book was chose simply because it was one of my favorites as a kid.  The colors and the illustrations drew me in as a child.  It holds importance to me and this blog now because its an adapted Pueblo Indian tale.  It brings forth legends from nearly forgotten cultures and shares a tale of a boy looking for his father who happens to be a deity.  It's a beautiful story and one I hope to be shared around.