From bread bags to....riches?

Last night we heard Senator Joni Ernst (R Iowa) offer her life story of rising from beginnings so humble she had to wear bread bags over her one pair of shoes. She presented herself as living proof that anyone can rise to power and wealth with hard work. Her speech promised that she understood the difficulties facing people these days and she and her party would help.

The metaphor has stayed with me, partly because I worried about how quickly the bread bags would get holes if you walked and how much bread they would need to eat to keep getting new bags for the kids’ shoes. It just didn’t seem practical.

More seriously, plastic bags on your shoes is kind of a lame hardship compared to not having a home or glassless windows covered with boards or moving constantly or being hungry or sick without means to access health care…..and yet, I think many of us who work in schools live in the belief that our children can rise.

It takes more than hard work though and we know it every day. It helps to have a good meal, rest, engaging relevant learning opportunities, people who help you see your possibilities and help you learn to keep moving through obstacles.

Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mombazo “Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes”

Photo: Dunstan, Rebecca. canliner2.jpg. 2011. Pics4Learning. 22 Jan 2015 <http://pics.tech4learning.com>

2 comments on “From bread bags to….riches?”

Jeremy Larner.73 says:

January 23, 2015 at 2:33 pm

Margie, You & I had the same reaction, with different associations. I posted:

The lady who delivered the “Republican Response” tonight spoke of growing up poor, but she became Senator from Iowa by virtue of family ownership of an expanding pig farm, a creation feared by rural people who lived within range of fumes and contamination. Annie Proulx wrote a novel about this, That Old Ace in the Hole, in the tradition of American tale-telling, which happens to be very funny as well as a sobering description of how rich people’s money outweighs the interests of the “ordinary hard-working” people the GOP pretends to represent in congress. Read Annie’s novel and decide for yourself whose description is richer and truer.

Marjorie Larner says:

January 23, 2015 at 11:02 pm

Thanks for the recommendation, Jeremy. I will read the novel. Oh the fashionable pretense of a hard luck childhood is hard to stop railing against when I see realities of real hard times for kids in front of me every day.

Jeremy Larner.73 says:

January 23, 2015 at 2:33 pm

Margie, You & I had the same reaction, with different associations. I posted:

The lady who delivered the “Republican Response” tonight spoke of growing up poor, but she became Senator from Iowa by virtue of family ownership of an expanding pig farm, a creation feared by rural people who lived within range of fumes and contamination. Annie Proulx wrote a novel about this, That Old Ace in the Hole, in the tradition of American tale-telling, which happens to be very funny as well as a sobering description of how rich people’s money outweighs the interests of the “ordinary hard-working” people the GOP pretends to represent in congress. Read Annie’s novel and decide for yourself whose description is richer and truer.
- Marjorie Larner says:
  
  January 23, 2015 at 11:02 pm
  
  Thanks for the recommendation, Jeremy. I will read the novel. Oh the fashionable pretense of a hard luck childhood is hard to stop railing against when I see realities of real hard times for kids in front of me every day.