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This beautiful, sparkly, young lady to the right here is my 11 year old daughter. And if I haven’t told you all before she is a rock star. No, seriously, she blows me away constantly. Okay, all of my children are truly amazing and all for different reasons, but let me tell you what makes this girl a rock star.
It all began 4 years ago. She was in 2nd grade. She had been struggling with reading her entire school career. I had been working with the school and her teachers trying to figure out why she wasn’t grasping this concept as easily as the rest of her classmates. One thing I KNEW FOR SURE was that it wasn’t from lack of trying on her part. Her 2nd grade teacher seemed to disagree though. By the end of her 2nd grade year she had sort of washed her hands of her. I had pushed for testing that the school didn’t want to perform and I watched as my smiling happy beautiful intelligent daughter began losing her light.
She began stressing that she didn’t like school. She started spending a lot of time in the nurses office with an upset stomach. There were lots of tears at home. It was awful. And well, the straw that broke the camel’s back was when I had heard not only from my own child, but from others in the class that she was giving whole classroom punishments to the class when one or two children acted out by taking away essential things to her education. Like not allowing them to go to the computer lab, even making them late for lunch so they didn’t have time to eat their lunch.
I was furious and I let my emotions get the better of me and I blogged about it. And word got out about my open letter to my daughter’s teacher and this prompted a meeting between me, my husband, the teacher, and the principal (whom by the way I thought I had a good relationship with having spent 2 years as the PTA president at the school). And it ended up being a line by line recount of what I blogged about (which I had apologized for by the way). Needles to say, it did not go over well.
In the middle of this meeting I realized there was no way my daughter would get a fare shake in this particular school. And since we had recently moved and were only attending that school on an out of district waiver I knew then and there that there was no way I could continue allowing my daughter to go to this school. I decided that we would finish out the year there and then we would move to our neighborhood school for the following year.
Suddenly they were capable of writing up a IEP for my daughter when it was no longer going to be them providing the services. Go figure. But we still had a little over a month left with this particular teacher. And my daughter was still spending day in and day out being made to feel she was not good enough. It broke my heart because I saw how hard she worked and I was petrified that she would give up.
She Did Not Give Up
She finished out her 2nd grade year making no progress in reading, but she didn’t give up. Nope, instead she set very lofty goals for herself. She started a new school with the best teacher ever! And she worked her butt off. She made a huge impression on this teacher from day one that by one week into the school year when we were meeting to discuss what her year would look like he was telling me stuff about my daughter that I thought only I knew about her. All I heard all year long that year was if I had 20 more students just like your daughter my job would be so easy.
Because you see even though she still struggles to read she does not let that stop her. She pushes through that trouble. She gives 110% of herself to her school work. And she aims to please. In the area she shines, she really shines and she helps her fellow classmates. If she doesn’t get something she tells you and she does whatever she can to figure it out. She is a rock star, like I said.
School Is Not Easy
She’s not an A student. She’s even below grade level in reading and on her standardized tests. But that doesn’t stop her from showing up every day with a smile on her face and putting forth her best effort. Don’t get me wrong, she does groan when it comes time to do something she doesn’t care for. But she always tries it. She always tries her hardest. And in the last three years since starting at this new school she has impressed. She has left a mark on that school and those teachers and they have done the same for her. Her 3rd grade teacher took a broken, beaten down little girl, and he gave her the confidence she needed to push forward and to get awarded the Silver President’s Education Award at her 5th grade celebration yesterday. And believe me when I tell you that she earned every last bit of this award.
What Is The Silver President’s Education Award
When her principal was announcing the awards she explained they offer two awards, the gold and silver President’s Education award. The gold goes to those students who since 3rd grade have scored above average on their state mastery tests and who have maintained a 93 average in all of their classes throughout the year. And the Silver President’s Education award is awarded to those students who have a hardship. Whether it’s ESL (English as a Second Language) or a special need, they have tried their absolute hardest to overcome their hardships. As soon as the principal described this award I knew it was my daughter. And I knew they just had to be awarding it to her because all three of her teachers have said she is the hardest working student they have had and they wished they had twenty more just like her. And sure enough her name was called.
Here she is receiving her President’s Education Award…
That right there is what it’s all about. That smile on her face is completely worth it. She earned that award. Her hard work might not have paid off in her grades or even with getting her up to grade level just yet in reading, but her hard work earned her an award signed by the president of the United States. Her hard work gave her recognition. She absolutely earned that award and I won’t let anyone tell her otherwise either. She could have given up after she was beaten down by her 2nd grade teacher, but she did not give up. She pushed and she pushed and she pushed some more until she got the recognition she so richly deserves. And she’s going to go on to a new school in another town next year and she will continue to show these people what she is made of because that’s the kind of rock star she is.
Truly amazing and well deserved and a huge honor. No matter what you’re feelings are for the president you have got to admit this letter right here with his signature is a pretty damn cool thing to have:
It says:
Please accept my congratulations on receiving the President’s Education Award. I am pleased to join your family, friends, and teachers in recognizing this tremendous achievement.
Nothing will have a greater impact on your success – and the success of our Nation – than the knowledge and skills you gain in the classroom. Your future is in your hands, and as long as you stay focused on your studies, there is not a single thing you cannot accomplish. By earning this award, you have shown the discipline and drive to excel academically, and I encourage you to carry those qualities forward in all that you do.
Congratulations, again. I applaud the example you set for students across our country, and I wish you all the best for the years ahead.
Signed President Obama
Now tell me that isn’t awesome. I really couldn’t be prouder of my girl. All I ever want is that my kids try their very best. And that’s all my daughter has done here. The skies the limit for this kid and believe me when I tell you she dreams big. With her work ethic, she’ll make things happen, I am sure of it.
It also helps when you have educators who see the good in kids. And these three fellows here have been exactly that for my daughter…
Thank you to these three great teachers for giving my daughter a chance to show you what she could do. They were all amazing, but to her 3rd grade teacher (the one pictured on the right) you will forever be the teacher that changed my daughter’s life for the better and I will forever be grateful.
