One of the themes that I assigned for summer reading is "life is not fair." Jean Valjean went to jail for stealing bread for his starving daughter. John Merrick, The Elephant Man, was forced to live as a freak show attraction because of a horrible, disfiguring medical disease.
Today many people find themselves facing foreclosure due to job or income loss, incredible medical care costs, or other unexpected circumstances. These aren't the people who bought the McMansions or who participated in get-rich-quick schemes and investments. These are regular people who worked hard, paid bills and expected that they would always be contributing members of society. They are not sympathetic characters in a novel; they live next door.
The nightly news shows angry people at Town Hall Meetings. Some of these folks may be 'plants,' placed by a petulant political party which works to undermine and attack the present administration, but others may just be misinformed, worried individuals who feel the rocking of the ground under their feet as we are forced to deal with complex issues. These are people who are concerned about what happens now, not how much better off we will all be in five or ten years when we have passed through this period. All will be affected by the steps that not only our government takes, but by the steps that we as individuals take to help ourselves and each other.
In a few weeks my students will return to class and we will dissect their summer reading into characters, plots, settings, and action timelines, but we will also talk about the deeper meaning of those stories. Some of my students' families will be facing income loss and medical issues. It will be important that these middle schoolers hear a message of resilience and optimism: Jean Valjean gets out of jail and John Merrick lives out his days being treated as a human being.
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