It started in the struggle for bilingual education in 1970. So, you see, it’s been a long time. It’s 36 years of seeing one generation after another, after another, of parents who want the best for their children, who dream about their children being able to enjoy that American dream that they will never be able to be quite a part of, that hope for their children to have a better future and a fruitful life. Because I do ask the parents - and I have tons and tons of answers from the parents - “What are your goals for your children?” And you’d be surprised. None of them really say that they’d be rich. They say, “We want them to not struggle as hard as we have, but we want them to be honest. We want them to be respectful. We want them to be kind to other people. We want them to be part of the other community in a healthy way.” I mean everything they want for their children is so admirable.
But I also see how so many of those children don’t really make it through; how they don’t finish high school; how they end up in the menial jobs, and how many of them do get involved in gangs, in problems. And all we have to do is look at statistics of our jails. I mean it’s horrible how much delinquency there is in our nation, and we have to prevent that from happening. And I’m convinced that one of the ways to prevent that is to strengthen the family, is to strengthen the role of the parents in the eyes of their children, is for the schools to ask something from the parents not on the terms of, you know, “Come and help us with a potluck,” but, “What is the wisdom?” “What have you learned through life?” “What is your best advice for your children?” “What are your dreams and goals for your children?” “What is a proverb that has been useful to you in life?” “What is a saying that you remember in” — “in moments of significance in your life?” “What is the moment that changed your life?” “What is a meaningful contribution you’ve made to life?” “What is something you know how to do well, and how did you learn to do that?”
Those kinds of reflections this is the work I do aside from writing children’s books: is to work with parents and schools into developing a home-school connection in which the parents become the authors of books where this is the content — books that are published by the teachers, books that are collected by the teachers. Many times, it’s the children that are bringing in the information to the classroom, but that we like to call our families’ wisdom, and where we want to recognize that these parents, who may not have a formal education, who may sometimes not even know how to read or write very well, do have a knowledge gained from life and from their struggle and from the heritage of having listened to the stories of their ancestors, and having listened to how other people in their family have gone through life. And rescuing that is really my mission.
