About a decade ago, my former school’s parent coordinator introduced me to a new student. This wouldn’t be a remarkable event because my school opened its doors to newcomers and immigrants often. Our student population was 90% Latinx/Hispanic, many of whom emigrated from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and other Latin American countries. This time, however, the student was fluent in neither English nor Spanish. He spoke Arabic and none of us were fluent in his home language. For the first few months, I relied on Google Translate and a student who was fluent in Arabic and English to carry us through, though I found this practice inequitable, too.
It took me too long to look up the news on Yemen and why so many folks preferred life here over there. We rarely asked about the reasons why our students matriculate at our schools. We should ask why, even with everything we see around us, families would leave home to make one here.
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