Differences - (vanilla post)

(I started to write this in my vanilla blog -- but some things can't be said there -- people who know us read it -- and I'm embarrassed by this. But I also need to say it....it's about my lovely student)

Sometimes the differences are wonderful

and funny

and charming

and sometimes our differences are shocking

Today M told me a story about people in her country that will shave a girl's head if she is known to date a boy that is Chinese.

they grab her on the street -- and shave her head in the name of racial purity.

and my sweet loving girl -- doesn't see that this is bad.

and I have to walk that careful line

between telling her what to think (which is useless)

and helping her to see that violence -- and bigotry is wrong. No matter what her parents or her family or her friends or her teachers have told her.

helping her to see that people of different cultures are all the same -- and deserving of the same human rights.

sometimes our differences are hard.

but I have 7 more months to go......and I won't give up.