Tuesday, January 03, 2006

girl power

I have been teaching girl empowerment workshops all day. Sometimes I really think I should be paying them and not the other way around. I mean, I get to sit in a room with twelve girls and discuss all the great things about being a girl, about personal truth, private space and every topic is a big post it note in my head: Trust yourself Teresa

Today I played the girls a Dar Williams Song, I was a boy and the song Popularfrom the Wicked C.D. Both are brilliant songs. We discussed what the word strength means, how some people call girl strength “boyish.” When truly each being has their own inner power and it has absolutely nothing to with gender.

Did you know the highest point of self esteem in a woman is statistically nine years old? How incredibly sad? So I am marking these girls in the desert. I am saying wow, you are right you are amazing. Set the stone here. Paint here. Learn to write so you can remember and don’t give away your little post it note so easily.

8 comments:

Radish King said...

Did you know that Beethoven's popular little bagatelle Für Elise was actually originally titled Für Terese and that he wrote it for his doctor's daughter whose hand he had asked for in marriage? True fact.

She turned him down, by the way.

early hours of sky said...

Yeah well, we are not easy lays;)

A. D. said...

if it has nothing to do with gender, how come powerful girlz own me?

*swoon*

Anne Haines said...

That's fascinating about the highest point of self-esteem being nine years old. That's how old I was when I decided I wanted to be a writer. (Actually, that may have had more to do with my having discovered the fact that "a writer" was something that one could be, thanks to reading Harriet the Spy.)

Artichoke Heart said...

Definitely swoon-worthy!

Unknown said...

yes the 9 y/o comment is really something. I can recall being nine and talking back to the Irish nun - not that's self esteem!

Unknown said...

"not" = "now"

Artemis said...

Wow what a great job you have!

How sad that is about the 9-year old self-esteem... maybe a good resolution for the rest of us would be to try to look within ourselves at our 9-year old self and pull her out again...

Keep fighting the good fight!