Eloise Greenfield
I recently reread this biography due to a global issues topic we were covering at school. We were on a search for inspiring women in history who were pioneers in the struggle to improve rights for women in an array of particular times and places. I had first come in contact with her about 15 years ago when Chuck and I were scouring library shelves for well-written biographies that could be read aloud to young children. (More about this author further down.) I had never heard of Mary McLeod Bethune up until that point, but after learning about her inspiring life we decided we needed to purchase a few versions of her story at various age levels. I was freshly inspired by Bethune after reading this biography last week.
Mary was a child of former slaves. Her parents struggled to own and farm land in the south after the war. When, as a young girl, she had a hunger for learning, her parents allowed her to pursue her dream despite the family's need for all the children (17 of them!) to help on the farm. After achieving this goal, she felt that other African American girls should have the same opportunity so she founded the Daytona Educational and Industrial School for Negro Girls in Florida. In 1923, the school merged with the all-male Cookman Institute of Jacksonville and became the Bethune-Cookman College. She was the school's president for two decades while also pursuing social justice issues at local, state, and national levels. This is an inspiring tale of a girl who rose from poverty to pursue every opportunity to better herself and also the lives of others; and, it is all contained in this readable account for children ages 9 -12. Isn't that an amazing feat for a writer!
Since then, I have had my eye on Eloise Greenfield. Everything I read by her conveys her belief that literature is a powerful vehicle by which children can learn about themselves in meaningful contexts.Whether it is through the melodies in her poetry or the ease of her storytelling in both fiction and biography, her mission for children comes through. But I should introduce you to her passion in her own words. In her book Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir she describes growing up happily in a close-knit neighborhood. In the introduction she says:
People are a part of their time. They are affected, during the time that they live by the things that happen in their world. Big things and small things. A war, an invention such as radio or television, a birthday party, a kiss. All of these help to shape the present and the future. If we could know more about our ancestors, about the experiences they had when they were children, and after they had grown up, too, we would know much more about what has shaped us and our world.
Therein is a theme I have repeated several times in this blog. Parents, tell your children the stories of their ancestors! Take Greenfield's advice that the stories do not have to be dramatic or filled with life-changing events. I recall my mom telling me about huddling around the radio with the family as news about World War II unfolded. That conjured up the picture of a family in a living room being together. I also remember that she told me she was given a nickel every week to spend and that she usually bought penny candy. That was a happy picture and the impression it had was that even in hard times her parents gave her a little something to make her skip and smile. These are powerful and lasting images.
The list of awards that Eloise Greenfield has won is a long one. One website search will bring up many articles. While this one by the National Council of Teachers of English is older (1997), it tells her story well and includes her awards and publications.
http://www.ncte.org/library/nctefiles/about/awards/greenfield.pdf
