Faculty Reflections on El Paso
In June 2019, World Leadership School lead a weeklong program for teachers on the US-Mexico border at El Paso, Texas. The following are reflections from the program leader, Shayna Cooke, and faculty.
Homeward today. Two weeks of being immersed in the migrant crisis at our southern border have taken their toll on my heart. I have met with attorneys, spoken with judges, sat through hours of criminal court deportation dockets, learned from leaders in the ACLU, interviewed Border Patrol, sat with and learned from undocumented migrants who want nothing more than to be invisible, helped a 20-year-old mother bathe her 6-month-old son for the first time since she started her trek from Guatemala on June 10th. I also helped welcome refugees whose horrific journeys through the desert have ended successfully … for them. Four children have died in the desert or river in the time that I have been here. I know you have seen the photo of the father and daughter from El Salvador who drowned yesterday in the Rio Grande. If you haven’t, find it and look at it until you can’t see it anymore for your tears. I love this work. I can’t imagine my life without this work but it also breaks me. There is so much suffering and so much pain here. I look at these people and can not understand how anyone can feel threatened by or hate them for doing exactly what I or anyone else would do for my kids.
I struggle this morning as I absently scroll through my Facebook feed and see pictures of family vacations and sweet kiddos dance recitals (not to offend, I do love these posts) with a sense of nothing matters, none of this matters when there are so many people, so many children, whose entire existence is that of desperation; desperate to get here, desperate to stay here, and desperate for safety. I have no answers and 1000000000 questions. I can’t wait to see my babies and my husband, Brad Cooke, but I leave with a broken heart and broken hope.
- Shayna Cooke, Director of Educator Development, World Leadership School
I developed a much more complex and nuanced understanding of the issues that surround the border. There is not merely one issue, but many that intersect (economic, gender, human rights, environmental, legal). As I think about writing a curriculum from my students I almost don’t know where to begin. Yet, I keep coming back to the human stories, the stories of the men and women, US citizens and non-citizens, mothers, fathers who do what they do to provide for their families. Whether it is the Border Patrol Agent who does his job to provide for his 4-year-old son or the mother who risks her life everyday living in the shadows they are all trying to do what is “best”. There is not a simple solution to the so-called crisis on the border. But there are human stories that I can share with my students as they learn issues and facts that will provide context and allow them to understand that no matter what the solution or policies that are passed, the consequences for people are real.
- Amy Howland, History Teacher, Choate Rosemary Hall
