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Show Hard to teach children all lessons of life Parents and teachers work so hard to orchestrate lessons that motivate and inspire. Lessons that are fun. Lessons that bring some interesting in-teresting bit of information and, like V X I Children t C ? & School V by Lily Eskelsen a cliffh anger, leave the learner wanting wan-ting to know what comes next. But what of those lessons from which we try so hard to shield our children? The lessons of life we never wanted them to have to learn. David's father had been killed in a car accident the year before he was assigned to my class. The man left a wife and six children. The enormity of the family's loss still weighed on many of us at school, even a year later. David was the oldest, and I worried wor-ried about how this 10-year-old was holding up under what had to be extraordinary pressure to take on "the man of the family" responsibilities. respon-sibilities. But he did well in my class. He was shy, yes, but had friends and seemed happy most of the time. His mother spent what time she could helping at schooL She worked, work-ed, but came in on her day off sometimes. Getting to know her just a little helped me understand David's quiet success. She taught her children that all life is a lesson. Some lessons are like fractions painful to learn and leave us unclear as to how we may ever use them. She taught that loneliness and anger and frustration and grief are all lessons. That we have to learn from them and become better people because of them. And that it's all right to turn to others to help us leam our lessons. This remarkable woman taught her children to take their pain and develop strength and resourcefulness and courage. She knew how to teach the lessons she never wanted her children to have to learn. |