One World, Many Stories

Themes for the summer reading program at our local library vary drastically from year to year. The librarians who put together the program do an excellent job. Their primary goal is to encourage children to expand their horizons through reading. The activities serve to pique a child's interest in a given subject, and there are plenty of related library books in easy reach when the activity is over.

Multicultural themes are wonderful because they fill the gaping hole in our public education system where children should be learning about the world outside of our American bubble. Today my daughters learned simple dances from Ecuador, Mexico, Norway, Japan, and China. They danced to the sound of authentic music which was silly to their ears, but interesting.

The most amazing part was how children two or three years old followed as intently as my nine year old. How beautifully the sharing of simple aspects of culture opens the mind and heart to learning about ideas and history. Things that high school students usually complain about having to learn from their textbooks. I'd love to send my high school world history teacher back to preschool. Today's activity was more interesting and engaging for me, even as an adult, than the entire semester of his class.

Ultimately, parents are responsible for the education of our children. If you're unhappy with the education your child is receiving, you can change it. Parents have more options than ever. Get involved in your child's school, homeschool, take advantage of extracurricular opportunities. So many are out there.

Try your best to avoid complaining. It only exacerbates the problem. Get to know your child's teacher and if there's a real problem, do something about it. Search your community for free or cheap programs that will fill the smaller gaps. Studies show that learning in different locations increases retention, so a public school teacher couldn't do for your children what you can if she wanted to.

Most importantly, I want to say thank you to the lovely librarians at the Sonoma County Library for all your hard work, bringing the world to our children!