The Resolute Woman

Category: children

  • Letting go of books

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    While my shattered femur has been healing, I have been inspired to do a little cleaning. I’ve been sorting through old business and personal papers—and even getting rid of some of the books that I’ve accumulated through the years. I was comforted when I found an article that I had saved from 2006. “Letting go…

  • Sarah, Plain and Tall

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    resolutewoman
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    I bought a copy of Patricia MacLachlan’s book Sara, Plain and Tall for the third-grade student I “mentor” once a week at an elementary school near my home. I bought it because I remembered when my daughter read it, and the title has always intrigued me. So, I read the book, for ages six to…

  • A lesson relearned—Be kind

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    When I volunteered one night recently with children with special needs, I was pleased to see that one preschooler with autism was talking more. As I watched him, I saw that, like any small child, he wasn’t always on his best behavior. He sometimes acted out, shoving or hitting his older sister. However, I was…

  • Good stuff is going on

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    The poet Naomi Shahid Nye, whose father is Palestinian, visits schools in the United States and the Middle East. At the Texas Book Festival in Austin, she remembered the students in one classroom in the Middle East. “Do the kids in the United States know we want to be their friends?” the children asked. No…

  • Give a child a book

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in

    The Common Sense Media reports that 22 percent of 13 year olds and 27 percent of 17 year olds say they “hardly ever” or never read for pleasure. Frank Bruni, a New York Times columnist, is dismayed by those statistics. “When it comes to books, I’m relentless,” he writes. “I’m incessantly asking my nephews and…

  • Remember the girls in Nigeria

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    The terrorist group Boko Haram recently kidnapped 276 Nigerian schoolgirls who were trying to get an education. “You will not do school again,” the terrorists told the girls. “You shall do Islamic school.” That was the report from one of the six girls who escaped, wrote Adam Nossiter in The New York Times. Those words…

  • Doing what I’m not supposed to do

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    Recently I stopped in the hallway of the elementary school where I go once a week to help a third-grade student with her reading. Posted on the wall were the goals from the students in one class—things they were going to do and things they were not going to do. “Stop watching so much TV”…

  • Patience, please

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    resolutewoman
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    My son, Jay, graduated and received his M.B.A. from the University of Tulsa on December 20. He already had had a number of job interviews, including three interviews with one large company. After that third interview, he was sure that he would get the job. He didn’t. He spent part of the holidays looking at…

  • Her mind was straight and tidy

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    by

    resolutewoman
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    When her brother dies in a tragic accident, Ren, who is 12 years old, survives by shutting off her feelings and creating space between herself and other people. In the book Come In and Cover Me, Gin Phillips describes how her character “had trained her mind to be straight and tidy. She was normally very…

  • A mother’s job

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    by

    resolutewoman
    in ,

    My son, Jay, is in the middle of job-hunting adventures. He has had three interviews with one company that he really would like to work for, and someone from that company is supposed to call him with news—good or bad—during the next week. Jerry, his father, and I hope the news is good. “I’m worried…