Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for February 11, 2010
Transcript:
Holly: Gram, I don't want to baby-sit...and if I DO I sure don't want to give the money AWAY. Gramma Evie: Holly, you have ALL you NEED. But the money you can earn in an AFTERNOON... Gramma Evie: ...could feed a Somali family for a WEEK! Or teach an Afghani woman to READ! Holly: WHO CAN'T READ?! Gramma Evie: Half the world. What DO they teach you in that school you're LUCKY to go to?!
There are plenty of charities that schools work with, and children have the opportunities to help fund-raise for them. And usually the charities are for the community around them.
That said, the local school district is collecting pennies to help build schools in Pakistan. The schools are teaching plenty on charity, but Holly’s Gran didn’t bother while she was at home. It was Alix who found the poor family, and tried to help them on her own, because she didn’t believe that her grandmother would want to.
And parents–and grandparents–have plenty of opportunities to teach the kids about life outside the house. I regularly guilted my kids about life here vs. Afghanistan.
Gran there didn’t volunteer in school while she was in the states, so she has no idea what the schools teach, and what’s more, her example of actively avoiding the schools and refusing to help with homework has set the path for her oldest grandchild.
What did Gran do with her days while the girls were in school and had the house all to herself? She didn’t volunteer in the local community, or at school. Can anyone blame Holly for wanting to be how she saw Gran every day?