I know I haven’t been posting much. Honestly I’ve been crazy busy with work. I’m a teacher and obviously we are back in school but besides that I also have 6 children with their various sports or activities and I also started announcing some of the sporting events. There are many days I leave the house at 6:30 and don’t return until 7:30 or 8:00. I know there are many other people working as hard or harder so I’m not complaining, just explaining.

I actually wanted to share something that happened in my class because I found it inspiring and touching. I teach 10th grade world history, among other things, and as part of the curriculum I taught a lesson about independence movements across Latin America. To front load the lesson I taught about how there were three distinct group of people with very different wants and needs all across the Americas, mainly: Natives, Colonists and West African slaves. We had a discussion about how there were many communities of people who had distinct languages, cultures and religions and they maintain much of that today.

Part of the lesson was about the grito de Dolores, which was in part, a call for independence for Mexico. Some of my students knew exactly what that was and were excited to share more about what they know and how they mark the anniversary of the event. They also shared their unique cultural experiences and how it differs from the dominant culture at times. Some of them were engaged in the lesson like never before.

The point is this: we all want to be validated. Whether it’s our race, religion, culture sexuality or anything else that makes us who we are, we want to be validated. There is much value in celebrating the achievements of ones people. There is value in learning about and embracing positive aspects of ones ancestors. For some reason, it makes us feel much more connected when others know us and accept us.

It’s part of the reason I love history so much. The study of the past helps us appreciate the present. It’s why I love story telling. We all want to identify with a hero and those stories inspire us.

I hope to get back to producing more writing very soon. Perhaps even something that explores the idea of validating ones identity. I have so many stories to tell still. I must find time for them.