Leaving Home, the First Day

I thought the story, The First Day was a good story and it touched me. The mother wanted her daughter to go to this one school but it was out of her area so she couldn't go. She end up going to the new school. When she had to fill the forms out she actually had to ask to fill them out because she couldn't read or write!  I think she was either an immigrant, alien or someone that was poor growing up and didnt learn. I thought it was a good story because it tells people about the recollection of the girl’s first day at school and letting us know that the mother didn’t know how to read or write.

When the little girl was reminiscing about her first day, I was thinking, "I don't remember my first day."  The earliest school memory I remember was in preschool. I was crying when my father left me for a bit. In the article by August Gribbon of Washington times he said, "Many of the nearly 1,000,000 newcomers who legally enter the nation each year and an unknown number among the estimated 300,000 illegal aliens find it exceptionally difficult to learn English because they can't read or write in even their native language." I agree with this quote because it is the same concept of some deaf students are good at ASL  but they struggle with the proper grammar and have elementary level reading.I think that the immigrants should learn to read and write in their language first then switch to English. It might be a little easier for them. Perhaps fate has bought them to the new school for a reason, maybe she would later take classes to learn to read and write. One thing I did not understand was that the girl was ashamed of her mother.

I do not know anyone that couldn’t read or write but I feel empathy for them. My step mother is from El Salvador. She can read and write but she is still learning English. Sometimes I have difficulties understanding what she says because of her accent. If there was no accent then I would probably understand her more. She used to take night class to learn but she stopped because she had a baby. Since then, I have heard nothing about her going back to night classes. I think it is because she is busy working. In the end I enjoyed reading the story and having flashbacks to my school days.

Citation: http://www.scottbomb.com/english.html