Appreciating the Capitol

One of the things I enjoy about my Literacy AmeriCorps experience is the diversity that I am exposed to on a daily basis.  As an English as a Second Language (ESL) and Civics teacher, I have the pleasure of instructing students of all ages and backgrounds from countries like Cuba, Iraq, Burma, Nepal, Eritrea, and Ethiopia.  Sometimes I take my students out of the classroom and around Austin.  In the picture below, my class and two other ESL classes took a trip to the Austin Capitol.  It was such an amazing experience.  I had been to the Capitol several times before.  Before this particular visit, I dreaded when my friends came into town because we inevitably made the trip to, through, and around the Capitol.  But my visit with the ESL students was the best visit I ever had because each one of my students was extremely thankful for the ability to visit such an important and symbolic government building.  They expressed such admiration of and respect to the people who worked there.  (They even enjoyed watching the woman who had the honor of working on top of scaffolding to dust the tops of the pillars!) 

Several of my students told me that they are not allowed to enter buildings like this in their own country unless they work there or have special permission.  Standing in one of the assembly halls staring at paintings and pictures I had memorized all too many times before, one of my students threw her arms in the air and exclaimed, "THANK YOU, AMERICA!!"  It sounds sappy, but I got kind of teary-eyed hearing this and watching my students marvel at everything.  It made me want to re-experience everything with them.  It is moments like this that make me thank my lucky stars that I have a job that I love, a job that makes me appreciate what is around me, and a job that betters the human soul.