One of the things that I like the best about my school is the multicultural environment. It was the first thing I noticed when I interviewed at the school. My son takes for granted the fact that his classmates celebrate Passover, Christmas, Ramadan, Chinese New Year, and Diwali. The ease and beauty of this multiculturalism is sometimes lost on our students, who can't fathom that people would discriminate on the basis of race or religion.
But it isn't lost on me. And my fellow teacher, Mrs. D, who grew up in India and teaches Spanish, is a perfect example of our multicultural world. Mrs. D is my touchstone for all things Indian ----- from cuisine to cultural patterns and the pronunciation of words ----- and I love the sound of her lyrical voice. Like me, she is a relative newcomer to New Jersey. Like me, her family is far away. And like me, she has a son, R, a young man who is increasingly taller than his mother but still shares her infectious smile and whom I know to be the very center of her world. So for all of our differences, Mrs. D and I have much in common.
When it rained last week and we got two days off from school, Mrs. D and her son R got the day off as well. And that day I received an e-mail from her that made me smile. She wrote:
"....isn't it great to get a day off because of a rain storm? When I was young, in India, we used to get "Rainy Days" during the monsoon season. The Principal would declare a day off, we would all come home, and get out in the rain and get as wet as possible. Popular lore has it that if you get wet in the monsoon rain you never get any heat related illnesses that season. I never thought that R would get to experience that, but he just did. That's the first thing he said when he woke up today. "Mom, we finally got a Rainy Day!. "
I love the idea that here in the United States, Mrs. D's most American son could celebrate the same tradition that his mother enjoyed when she was a child in India. I picture the rain falling on his upturned face, the one with the same smile that was also present half a world away on the face of a little girl who stood in the rain not that long ago.
You and your son are very lucky indeed. Here at my little school in the south we have a new teacher from India. The kids have mercilessly made fun of and abused her because she is different. She is such an amazing person but the kids can't see this because they are so caught up in her different voice. It is odd how they so quickly forget the struggles their ancestors faced.
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