A letter to the sons of my great-aunt Auntie

My great-aunt Auntie (real name Viola) died this week.  She was a teacher in a one room schoolhouse.  She was 99.5 years old.  As you can tell, she gave me a very important gift--she taught me how to learn.  Below are portions of the letter I sent to her sons.
----

I am saddened that I did not share the contents of this letter with Auntie personally.

When in elementary, school was very hard for me. Even after much reflecting, I have never really been able to pinpoint what my issues were. I was slow to read and slow to learn math. I did get some services in school, but additionally my parents had me see Auntie every Saturday morning for personal tutoring. I remember her house and my time there well—the cookies, the kitchen table covered in “learning materials,” the handkerchiefs, the math grids, and decodable books. I remember her patience when I became frustrated with reading hard words. I remember her catching me when I tried to add or subtract using my fingers under the table.

Auntie had a role to play in my life, and I benefitted from her guidance. I currently work as a school psychologist for a local district. A large part of my position is identifying kids with learning needs and creating plans for them. I also teach in the School of Education at UW-Stout training future educators.

I would like to attend the funeral. However, my last teaching day of the semester is Friday, and I have a commitment to my students. I find it a bit ironic and musing though… that Auntie taught me how to learn, because I didn't know how.  But now I can’t attend her funeral because I have a college class to teach. I suspect she’d rather see me in the classroom.

I will always be grateful for Auntie’s support. She made a huge difference in my life, and I am sure in the lives of many others.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why I think Christian Nationalism is bad for Christianity. By Kelly Lamon

Image
My daughter, a first-time voter, said to me, “Mom, it feels really important to me that Kamala Harris wins the election.”   I replied, “I feel the same way.”   Plenty of pundits and talking heads are outlining why: the policies on her website, women’s rights, empowerment of the middle class, her message about lifting people up.   But I want to talk about a different reason.   As I Christian pastor, I’m concerned about the future of Christianity in the US due to the uprising of Christian nationalism since Trumpism took root.   It’s no surprise that as a pastor, I believe that faith really matters.   I can cite scientific research about the healing power of spirituality, point you to stories of individual transformation, and highlight the positive impact of religion on society.   Heck, I've devoted my life to sharing this good news.  But  I am also astutely aware of the damage that faithful people can do: oppression, manipulation, coercio...
Read more

Tragedy and Grace

Image
This is written with permission of the daughter of Sha-Von.   Last year, my church started a journey of more actively pursuing racial justice.   After so much struggle in the Twin Cities, we could not turn our eyes away any longer.   As a step in this journey, the staff and executive team was asked to make progress in our ability to adapt to diverse cultures, backgrounds, and experiences, and to understand more deeply the biases operating in us.   I remember meeting one-on-one with our consultant.   I found myself saying to him over and over, “I feel as if I know what I need to do in my head, but I don’t intentionally create space and time to interact with the diversity around me.   I’m scared.   I'm a  perfectionist.   And I can’t be perfect at this.   I’m worried that my interactions could create harm.   I don’t want to be that person.   So I just withdraw.”   That was last spring.   And I didn’t make an...
Read more

Was Jesus Polarizing?

Was Jesus a polarizing figure? My church will do a worship series on polarization during Lent.   Wish us luck!   People are already asking me, “Are you really going to ask me to interact with others whose views are so off course that they would become violent?”   That response is incredibly telling of the dynamics at play within our society—that people automatically go to the extreme without seeing the rest.   The goal of this series is to investigate whether the life of Jesus teaches us anything about polarization. I’ve been doing some scriptural research.   And I got to tell you: it’s been a tough day.   You know when you are reading a novel and you prescribe a personality, tone of voice, and temperament to a character?   It’s almost like you can hear their voice in your head as you are reading dialogue.   The author of the story, of course, plants all the seeds through their character development, but ultimately the reader’s own lens giv...
Read more