A Kid Ramble

Yesterday's comments were about the book Children of the Dust Bowl. It's the true story of the school at Weedpatch Camp and how a single person made a difference.

It talks a lot about how a large group of people, but especially children were essentially discriminated against because of their situation.

It touched me because of the change that took place in the kids. They went from believing what they were told by most people around them, that they were nothing, worth less than garbage, to believing in themselves and becoming productive adults in society.

What gave them the chance to believe in themselves? Another human being. Leo Hart saw something in the kids of Weedpatch Camp, something that he saw in all children.

"I could never understand, " Leo said, "Why these kids should be treated differently. I could never understand why they shouldn't be given the same opportunity as others. Someone had to do somehting for them because no one cared about them."

They were the Okie kids in California. They had survived the horror of the dust bowl and made it California with their families. They traveled there in the hope of jobs and a new life. Instead they were segregated into camps and refused work.

Leo Hart found a way to get the kids their own school. The kids who attended the school literally built it themselves. They also grew their own food and livestock. They learned many things way beyond just math and reading. They learned carpentry and air plane mechanics, butchering and chemistry, cooking and nutrition, plumbing and electronics. They build their own swimming pool. They learned to sew and cobble because they had no clothing or shoes.

"When we started to build the school, it gave the parents hope," Leo said. "They could see what the school meant to the children. They could see it every day in their faces, in their laughter. And the longer we ran the school, the longer the families stayed. The greater portion of them stayed there and would stay the year round and work so their kids could stay in the school. They understood what we were trying to do. It was the first time the children ever had anything of their own, where all the attention was on them, where they were given the best and they knew everyone was for them."

"The teachers made us feel important and like someone really cared," Trice Masters said. "The school gave us pride and dignity and honor when we didn't have those things. It was our school. It did a great deal to cause us to believe we were special."

That is part of what makes me do foster care. A child in a situation that they didn't create and don't deserve, left believing they don't count, don't matter, aren't wanted or are just some sort of left over throw away from who knows what sort of situation. Those are the kids I'm willingly taking into my home, caring for and loving with all my heart. Those are the kids I'm allowing to sap my energy and resources. Those are the kids that I hope will one day remember that while they were here, in my arms, they counted, they mattered, they were worth something.

And.

That I loved them for who they were.