{"id":2351,"date":"2017-09-15T06:00:40","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T10:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/?p=2351"},"modified":"2017-08-25T18:59:21","modified_gmt":"2017-08-25T22:59:21","slug":"first-day-school-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2017\/09\/first-day-school-part-2.html","title":{"rendered":"First Day of School \u2013 Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

September marks the beginning of the school year. And even if we have not attended classes in ages, we are still affected through our children and grand kids, as well as our own memories.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Who doesn\u2019t send off children anywhere without a pit in their stomachs?
\nBy Iris Ruth Pastor<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

…<\/em>continued from Part 1, posted on Wednesday, September 13th…<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Parents routinely ask college campus student affair administrators if their children will be safe walking home from the library late at night. What about the dangerous risks of binge drinking? Depression? Date-rape?\u00a0Families who gave Irena Sendler their children only asked one question: What guarantee can you give us of our child\u2019s safety? Irena\u2019s answer: \u201cI can promise you nothing, but that I will risk my life today trying.\u201d Babies were tranquilized and stored in toolboxes under bricks in flatbed trucks leaving the ghetto, bound for a \u201csafe\u201d house. Older children were re-clothed and instructed to completely shed their past and internalize the information on the falsified documents they were handed.<\/p>\n

I always worried that my kids, who had always approached studying and homework with underwhelming rigor, would feel overwhelmed their first semester at a university. My husband felt they could handle a full and demanding 17-18 hour course load. I argued for less, to spare them undue stress and ease their fears of \u201cflunking out.\u201d\u00a0Parents living in the ghetto hoped to spare their kids stress too \u2013 only their stress was based on keeping their children from selections that led to deportation on trains headed for the death camps. Wealthy families who had managed to smuggle money with them paid as high as $15,000 per work permit for older children \u2013 who then had the \u201cprivilege\u201d of toiling 17-18 hours per DAY in hard labor.<\/p>\n

Of course, the Jews in the ghetto didn\u2019t have to worry if their kids had the \u201cright\u201d wardrobe essentials for their leave taking: sports jerseys and caps with university logo, towel wraps, snow boots, backpack, texting gloves, fleece vests.\u00a0Jews in the ghetto wore patched, ragged clothing with the Star of David for identification. No option dressing. Authorities warned that severe punishment \u2013 up to and including death by shooting \u2013 was in store for Jews who did not conform and wear the badge.<\/p>\n

So even with keeping things \u201cin perspective,\u201d what can we do when:<\/p>\n