I’m still putting off getting started on Meg’s heritage report. I keep hoping that she’ll change her mind and do Korea, but she’s resisting. She’s practicing drawing her maple leaf for the Canadian flag.
I’ve been worried that she feels embarrassed about being different, but I guess I’m the one who needs to let go of worrying about what other people think. But then, I guess I’m the one who needs to let go of worrying about what other people think. I’ve written before about how I felt compelled to bring two dishes to my son and daughter’s preschool ethnic potlucks, fearful that I would seem to be ignoring the girl’s heritage if I brought only Irish or Italian food, or that people would think I was trying to be something I’m not if I brought Korean food. But when my mom taught, she once had a student who was East Indian bring food from his Irish stepmother’s heritage.
Somehow I feel like I’ve got to be the “poster child” for sensitively handling every cultural and adoption issue and presenting the positives of international adoption–to people from my daughter’s country, or for that matter to the whole wide world. (Hey, heaven knows I won’t get to be considered a Supermom based on my housekeeping!)
Maybe I need to do some prep work. I’ve done presentations on Korea before. Maybe I need to talk to the class about adoption, or have a teacher with Korean kids come talk about his family. Maybe we should try to do the report on multiple countries. Maybe focus on Korea with a paragraph and photos of how we try to do traditions from the various cultures that make up our family. Maybe we could do a report on our Catholic heritage as a unifying set of traditions which are expressed differently in the various countries. (It’s a Catholic school.)
Hm, I can think of lots of ways I would write the report! However, the challenge will be to let my daughter do it. It will be more challenging because she has a language disability and will need substantial help. How to help without interfering? I’ll let you know how it goes.