Opinion: Early rhymes instilled love of reading, writing
My mother and father came from Mexico but at different times. Mother came with her family as they fled the Mexican Revolution; Daddy came alone a few years later. They met at a dance and eventually married and raised eight children. The small town we lived in, Calvert, Texas, kept the same teachers for years. Therefore, the teachers taught all the children in my family.
I was the sixth child. At home, we spoke Spanish with our parents. My older four brothers and sister, however, spoke English to each other when they arrived from school and I learned English from them. At school and everywhere else, we spoke English. Thus, we became bilingual.
George (Georgeanna was her real name but I could only say George) worked cleaning our home when I was a small child. She was tall, so unlike my short mother, and she was nice and friendly to us children. George spoke only English and Mother spoke a limited amount of English. Since my siblings attended school and I was left with my mother, I followed George from room to room as she swept, mopped, and ironed. I spoke English with her.
She was a tall cinnamon-complexioned woman with short hair who lived right outside of town with her elderly, blind father. She hummed to herself as she worked, which I enjoyed as I had never heard anyone hum before. She answered my many questions and introduced me to a wonderful aspect of the English language, a story with rhyming words.
George told me my first story in English which included rhyming words. It was a characteristic of the English language that later helped me to learn to read at the age of five. As I said before, Mother spoke only Spanish with us, and while she told me stories, she never dwelled on words that rhymed.
The best time to talk to George was when she ironed because she was stationary and not moving to a different room. George told me the story of Rumpelstiltskin. She delighted me when she arrived at the rhyme:
Today I brew; tomorrow I bake.Next day the Queen’s childI shall take.
“Say it again,” I begged. And she did as she kept ironing. Something aroused in me. I wanted to hear more, especially more words like these, words that sounded almost alike!
A year or so later I was enrolled in the first grade. Because I was registered at the age of five, my parents had to pay a nominal fee until December, the month I turned six. The first grade teacher, Miss Kessler, had nursery rhymes all over the walls. And of all things, rhyming words described each picture. She had us repeat the rhymes daily with her -- and guess what -- I could then say them by myself. I took those words and saw them in books and knew what they meant. I had learned to read!
My favorite:Hey, Diddle, Diddle.The Cat and the Fiddle.The cow jumped over the moon.The little dog laughed to see such sport.And the dish ran away with the spoon.
By the third grade when Mrs. Blake asked the class to write a poem, I had no problem. She exclaimed to the whole class how nice my poem was. Suddenly, other students wanted my help. I was incredulous.
George had no idea she had helped embark me on a journey that has never ended -- that of mastering and then learning and utilizing English words in oral and in written fashion.
Could anything be more wonderful? From those few lines George told me, my love for words in English and the possibility of stories was born. And the excitement and warmth I feel for reading has never ceased.
Thank you, George. I wish you were around so I could thank you personally. I am truly grateful.
Esther Bonilla Read is a retired teacher who now writes full time. Last year TCU Press published "After the Blessing: Mexican-American Veterans of WWII Tell Their Own Stories."
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Opinion: Early rhymes instilled love of reading, writing
