Earlier this year, I had a conversation with Lakshmi when she told me she wants to be a doctor and then asked, "What is your dream, aunty?" This is a conversation that takes place frequently, so I decided it would be reallly cool to take a picture of each girl and have them write a little blurb about what their dreams are, putting them into a book at the end. So that is our new English project, and it has been a little bit difficult for some of the girls to grasp the idea. We want to emphasize not only that dreams are what you want to be when you grow up, but to talk about WHY that is your dream, and that you shouldn't be afraid to dream big. Also, your dreams don't have to be only about you, but about the world. For example, My dream is to be a teacher so that all children can learn how to read. My dream is to visit Jen Aunty in America. My dream is that all children have food to eat.
I was a bit nervous to start this with the youngest girls; they're kind of rambunctious and I thought it could possibly be a difficult conversation. However, as usual, they surprised me.
We talked for almost a whole hour about dreams, and about their villages where children only get one meal a day and families live without houses, without blankets, without clothing. We talked about what kind of dreams they could have that would help these people, and to see their passion and their excitement thinking of a world that is better than the one that they know was absolutely heartrending and inspiring.
this sounds like a wonderful conversation to have! it's great to talk about how dreams will make things happen concretely too. that's what's missing from a lot of classrooms. cool.
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