When my father, Odysseus, and his men sailed off to the Trojan War, they were confident their gods favored a quick victory. Instead, the siege of Troy lasted ten years. After Troy fell, the survivors made their way home to Sparta, Mycenae, Pylos, and elsewhere in the ancient Peloponnese. Neither my father nor any of his troops arrived home with the rest. We waited for years as the news grew worse. Odysseus was dead, we were told,or imprisoned, or, worst yet, he had married another woman and abandoned my mother Penelope, my brother Telemachus, and me.


If he is alive somewhere, his thoughts may wander to Penelope and Telemachus, but he won’t be thinking of me. I am the daughter he doesn’t know exists. Odysseus went off to the Trojan War when his son, Telemachus, was barely old enough to walk. His wife, Penelope, was a teenage bride, and is now a young wife, mother, and queen who has to try to rule Ithaca without him.


I was born seven months after he left. I am a hero’s daughter and a princess of his realm, but I have lived my entire life without a father. I’m nineteen now, and still waiting.


All over the world, and throughout history children grow up as I have. This website will focus on the children of those men and women who have gone off to fight America's wars, and provide information and resources for all who care about military families and want to help.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Helping the Two Million


A new program will send graduate students in USC's Master of Social Work program to work as interns with the Temecula Valley School District, near Camp Pendleton, in Southern California. A $7.6 million dollar grant from the Defense Department will enable interns to provide counseling services while studying the social, academic and emotional challenges children with deployed parents face.

Amazingly, until 2008 the Defense Department had no knowledge of how many children from military families were in schools. Now, it appears as if around 80,000 children are being educated in schools on bases around the world and another two million are in public schools. Grants such as this one will help school districts around the country identify the particular needs of these students so resources can be tailored to meet them.

Recently retired Temecula superintendent Carol Leighty grew up in a military family herself. "When [USC] called me, it was a no-brainer," Leighty says. "When you're a military brat yourself, you're very sensitive to what those kids go through."







Posted by About AART at 6:40 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)