Principle #4 – Activate Your Learning Gene!
I’m fortunate to be homeschooling my grandson during our stay-at-home orders. He’s been studying immigration, and I’m re-learning so much with him. The Latin phrase e Pluribus Unum is on The Great Seal of the United States and on the back of our currency. The translation is, out of many, one and, it’s the motto for the United States. We are one country of many immigrants.
We read the story “A Little Giant Comes to America” about mathematician Charles Steinmetz emigrating to America from Germany. He had to leave Germany because he spoke out against his government and would be jailed if he stayed. Charles looked different…he was four feet tall and couldn’t stand up straight. He was afraid America would not accept him because of the way he looked and because he was in trouble in Germany. But America let him immigrate because of his knowledge of math and electricity. America welcomed people from other countries so they could share their unique abilities and talents, not because of their appearance.
I’m very encouraged that we are teaching our children the lesson of how our country has been built on people immigrating from all over the world. Immigrants brought and continue to bring their knowledge, talents, traditions, and beliefs to our country. The United States offered better opportunities and the freedom to be who they wanted to be.
“All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.”
– Winston Churchill
We must re-enforce teaching what America stands for. And to teach the lesson of accepting people the way they are with no prejudice of size, gender, or skin color.
We take these freedoms for granted, and we have no idea how our life would be without them. So, think about how you feel during this trying time of having to stay at home. But we still have the freedom to go to the store and the ability to exercise outside so long as we have our masks on and practice social distancing. Can you imagine not having the freedom to go outside or having no food at the grocery store? And, like Charles Steinmetz, not having the freedom to speak or to be who we want to be? We have many freedoms that other countries don’t have.
People fight to get into the United States, a country of opportunity and freedom. I now have a greater appreciation for our country’s freedoms and what our country has to offer.
We may have lost the freedom of movement for now, but it won’t be forever. Be grateful for the freedoms our country has and what our country stands for. Please continue to stay at home, wearing masks, social distancing, and taking care of each other. Focusing on the whole of society is our current role. We’re all in this together!
Freedom is possible!
Love,
Deb