It was just a dictionary. A Spanish/English paperback dictionary. But to Victor that dictionary promised a potential change to his world.
I had just completed a lesson on how to use a dictionary —- everything from looking up words that started with the initials of your name to identifying the longest word in the dictionary to talking about all the information found at the back —- in a third grade classroom in Silicon Valley.
As I packed up to go, a student approached me and said, “Victor has a question for you, but his English isn’t good.” The girl told me, “Victor wants to know if you can give him an extra Spanish/English dictionary for him to take to his mother. He hopes that if she can learn English, she can get a job and then he and his sister won’t be so hungry sometimes.” Fighting tears, I put the dictionary in his hands, and he ran out to recess with his dream dictionary for his mother tucked carefully under his arm.
Assistance League of Los Gatos-Saratoga provides Dictionary Day once a year, and on one specific day every third grader in the Campbell Union School District receives a dictionary of their own to keep. Over 1,000 students also learn how to use their dictionaries from volunteers in their classrooms.
A year later when at the same school, Victor noticed me on the playground and in his improving English told me, “my mom can read English and she works sometimes now.”
Knowing it is possible to make a difference in the life of a child is why we all volunteer each day.
Los Gatos-Saratoga
