The Importance of Learning about Immigrants and Family History

         Imagine traveling hundreds of miles on the ocean, in a crowded ship with complete strangers all around you. Imagine kissing your friends and family goodbye knowing that you may never see them again, or that you may never make it to the promised land alive. Imagine what it would feel like to be heading to a new land, where the future is dim and obscure.
       Immigrants in the early 1900s, were extremely brave human beings. They had a vision in their mind: they wanted a better future (jobs), they wanted a chance to start over, to provide for their families, and to bring up their children in a world where they could be successful and could be free. Every single immigrant that took the risky step of boarding a ship to America had a reason for leaving their entire life, friends, and family behind, and these reasons vary according to the individual and the country that he/she came from. These immigrants did not know what life would be like in this new world, and how people in America would treat them. Their knowledge of America was murky, dim, and obscure. They also faced the possibility of death and tragedy on this long trip to America, but the glowing image of a prosperous life in the minds of these immigrants kept their spirits going and their hopes and dreams alive. And when these immigrants spotted the Statue of Liberty and Ellis island in the distance, immagine the thrill that must have flowed through their veins and the excitement and cheers that must have erupted on these ships among the immigrants knowing they had made it alive to America, the land of the free, and that their lives were going to change forever......
      

         Upon exiting these ships, these immigrants faced more obstacles and barriers. Not speaking the American language, being surrounded by customs and traditions that were different from their own country, having to live in unsafe and crowded appartments and tenement houses, having to work long hours in factories in unhealthy and unsafe working conditions, being made fun of and being looked down upon by many American people and people of other races, and having to deal with pangs of home sickness.                          

                 Many immigrants also, upon arriving at Ellis Island, had their names mistakenly changed by American authorities because these they couldn't speak the American language, and the American authorities couldn't speak the immigrants' language. Many immigrants were sent back to their own countries because they were sick or were not considered intelligent enough to live in America, and therefore, many immigrant families were torn apart. 

                  Immigrants faced emotional, social, mental and physical difficulties in America and for many immigrants, their image of America being a wonderful place to live, vanished. These immigrants endured all these challenges and hardships to make a better life, and yet today, many people have no idea who the immigrants were in their family lines, and have no desire to look back into their family history to learn about these people and their struggles to survive. These courageous immigrants started many of our family lines in America, and if it wasn't for these people taking a risk for a better life and future, we would not be here today.

         
             Appreciating and understanding what immigrants had to go through and what the Statue of Liberty means to immigrants appears in the children's book, A Picnic in October, by Eve Bunting. This story is about a boy, Tony, whose Italian grandparents take his whole family on a picnic to Liberty Island every year in October to celebrate Lady Liberty's birthday. Tony does not understand why his grandparents take his family on a picnic to Liberty Island, and why the Statue of Liberty is so important to the grandparents. However, on this trip to Liberty Island, he begins to realize the Statue of Liberty's significance when he encounters a new immigrant family that also makes the same trip to celebrate Lady Liberty. This story portrays the importance of understanding family history, what people had to go through to get to America, and why the Statue of Liberty is so special to immigrants and to families in America in the past and in the 21st century.
          Family history should not be deemed unimportant and should not be ignored. In order to understand our true selves and how we got to where we are today, we have to remember those in our family lines that brought us here to America, and those immigrants in our family lines that sacrificed their lives to make ours better. Knowing their struggles will help us to appreciate our lives more. And by researching our own family histories, the doors of the past will become opened and we will learn aspects of our families that we never knew existed. To be blind to family history is to be blind to your origin, where you come from, and who you are as a person.
          Immigrants, family history, culture, Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty, are great topics to include in the elementary school classroom, and these topics will help children to not only learn more about themselves and others, but to appreciate the couragous and brave souls in our family lines and in our past that risked their lives across the ocean to live in the Land of the Free. These people should never be forgotten..........

Quiet Bunny and Noisy Puppy: A Story about Friendship

         White crystals gently descend to the earth, frosting the tops of pine trees, lodging inbetween the barren branches of old oaks, and transforming mother nature's colorful canvas into a winter wonderland. But it is in this winter landscape that two distinctly different animals meet, and their friendship is challenged by their different physical characteristics.

         In this story, Quiet Bunny hops merrily through the snow from one place to the next trying to find another animal in the forest to play with, but all of Quiet Bunny's friends are hibernating and she begins to feel sad and lonely.

             Suddenly an energetic barking puppy dog comes bounding through the trees toward Quiet Bunny. Noisy Puppy asks Quiet Bunny to play and at first Quiet Bunny is hesitant to answer. She had never met a puppy dog before and immediately she notices the exterior (physical) differences between them. But then, Owl flies down from the sky and tells Bunny that just because she is a forest animal, and Noisy Puppy is a farm animal doesn't mean that they can't be friends. They are both different from each other but they are both animals. Quiet Bunny and Noisy Puppy look at each other and then they start to play. They soon become best friends, and when spring comes and Noisy Puppy has to go back to the farm, Quiet Bunny is sad, but they play again together the following winter and all the other winters after that.

        The heartfelt message in this story is one that everyone can learn from and can apply to their own lives. Just because someone may seem different, does not mean that you cannot be friends with that person. Everyone is different on the exterior, but these outside differences should not come in the way of meeting new people and making new friends. Because at the end of the day, everyone has one characteristic in common: we are all human beings..... 

         By putting aside these differences, friendships can be made, just like Quiet Bunny and Noisy Puppy put aside their differences and became best friends!!!

Brave Irene: A Story of Courage, Determination, and Perseverance

Swirls of white crystals blinding perception; a tiny figure struggling against the wind's ragging breathe; small arms wrapped tightly around a wrapped package; and eyes focused on destination.
       Brave Irene, by William Steig, is a picture book that truely captivates the perseverence and determination that lies deep down within a person's soul, and also displays to readers how the keys to success lie in a person's mindset.
        The first time my teacher in elementary school read this book to me, I was captivated by the illustrations. The image of the child in the story, Irene, dressed in her red hat and scarf, her purple coat, green dress, and black boots being tugged and pulled in every direction by a strong Northern wind, became etched into my mind.
          The fact that Irene was making a journey alone, through a snowstorm, in order to deliver the dress her sick mother had sewn by hand, for a duchess who was supposed to wear the dress at a ball that evening, aroused a sense of admiration within me for Irene. I was impressed by her courage, determination, and perseverence that drove her to keep pushing through the heavy wet snow to her destination. Even when the box was wripped out of her hands by the wind and the dress was sent flying into the night sky, Irene kept trudging forward because she knew that she had to explain to the duchess why she didn't have the dress with her.
          Irene could have given up, she could have turned around and headed back home when the dress escaped her grasp, she could have froze to death in the snow, she could have let the wind and the snow win. But Irene kept going and her strong will and mindset allowed her to push past the barriers being thrown in her way. In the end, she ends up finding the dress pinned up against a tree trunk by the wind in the front yard of the duchess' house, and with a smile, she is able to present the dress to the duchess.
          After my teacher read this story, I was inspired by Irene's courage and I realized how important it is to have a positive mindset in every challenge that one faces. If Irene had become down on herself and had let her emotions cloud her mind, she would have given up and the duchess never would have received the dress that Irene's mother worked so hard to make. Because Irene kept her goal in mind, she let this goal burn through the snow and lead her to her destination and to success.
          Irene is a character that I looked up to as a child, and that I still look up to today after re-reading the story. Irene represents the true heros that are within all of us if we just keep our goals in mind and never lose sight of what we desire. Irene displays the keys to success, and she is an inspiration that can help children and even adults to persevere through the darkness.

An Original Poem titled: Forest Fire

Forest Fire

Liquid gold penetrates emerald seas

and swirls around chocolate statues.

Slicing its way through painted canvases,

it catches the slightest pigment of color,

and extinguishes the vibrant hues of life

in one explosion of crimson sparklers.

Bobbing and dipping to the rhythms of the silent whisperer,

it whips through opaque skies; disintegrating the jewels of heaven,

and squeezes the souls of gumdrops and blooms

until they shatter.

Scraping and clawing it inhales the sands of time,


spews out carbon dioxide,

                                                and evaporates the last breath

of each passing victim.

Gliding and slithering on arid grains of sugar,

it carves a channel with scalding fingers; uprooting quivering stragglers,

and obstructing the silvery gateways of liberty

that loom behind billows of ebony.

Twisting and turning,

it accelerates on parched tenderness,

snagging onto feeble arms outstretched,

erupting helter scelter,

zipping through masses of grandeur,

snaking through slender passageways,

churning up luscious spotlights,

and stamping,

its kiss of death,

in all directions,

leaving nothing but a trail of desolation.

It does not turn back,

it does not stop,

there is no escape…