Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/a-manner-of-speaking/5016896/
Sometimes you wonder what you would/could/should write about �" and then a story unfolds around you.Thelma started this one. She works with my daughter Alison as a social worker in the Chicago Public Schools. “Some of these children,” Thelma shared, “come from homes where there is no language. Their family dialogues are about eating and getting dressed �" about the routines of living. When they come to school they are so far behind. It’s difficult for them to catch up. What can we do to help them?”
Shortly afterwards, I was on an airplane where two young children were engaged in conversation with their father for the entire 2 hours and 47 minutes of the journey. “See all the clouds!” “What’s that noise?” “Look at the airplane with Goofy on it! There are 2 of them. Two Goofys!” Their father engaged them in exploring the airplane, talking about their destination, reading books, sharing comments and stories and curiosities.
And then there was a young mother on the metro with a baby neatly packed into his stroller and a young girl beside her �" both mother and daughter were folding newspapers into identical parcels. Daughter, like mother, gazed at the print, folded and turned ...