Yesterday was the fingerprinting, and now let the days of the criminal background check begin…
I wonder if the Wisconsin state patrol “incident” will come up again. I wonder if the church shunning “incident” will resurface its ugly head. I wonder if my traffic tickets will show up. And what about my day in court after the rear collision accident…
Much honking…
They provided me with a nice menu of various crimes, misdemeanor and felonies. I think their intention was to jog my memory for any activities I may have been involved in that may have been contrary to the laws of the land. Nothing on the menu looked very appetizing or appealing to Mother Goose. And I shall spare you the details of the list…
But on with my story!
Yes, Mother Goose has been selected from a large applicant pool of millions (I’m assuming…) to perform and provide tutorial services to the small children in the Chicago Public School district — on the far west side of the city. These neighborhoods are desperate places — both the need and the risk is great. Many of my most faithful readers will remember how often Mother Goose has mentioned the Austin and Garfield Park communities, and how my heart is touched by the unemployment and crime and gang presence in those areas of the great city of Chicago.
And as soon as my own background is checked and rechecked, I’ll be going daily into those areas of the city to help the little ones to become proficient in their reading and math skills.
And yes! This is a paying gig for the goose! You might even faint away if I told you how much they intend to pay me!
Not too long ago, I posted a little story about Dreaming the Impossible Dream. One of my impossible dreams is to work with military and veteran families in these west side neighborhoods — one of the challenges that we face in our coalition of services is to actually locate these invisible families. They don’t easily self-identify to outsiders.
I truly believe that this tutoring opportunity is going to lead to many connections with kids of military families. Maybe mom or dad is serving in the armed forces. Maybe a big brother just left for Afghanistan’s border zone. Maybe their daddy just got back from the war, but he’s not the same as before he left.
There will be children sitting at my table who know what it’s like to be separated from a parent or sibling — I’m going to be in the right place at the right time to not only teach them how to read better, but help them to deal with the stresses particular to military kids.
It’s nearly like a mission for Mother Goose!
If my criminal background check shows me as a clean goose, then I’m in. HONK HONK
Love, Mother Goose
Mother Goose Smiles 