I like to share this story with my children about my Ukrainian student. She came from Kharkiv with her two young sons in May 2022. She taught mathematics in a university in Kharkiv before the war.
She likes to talk about her sons, that they are now taking online classes offered by Ukrainian schools because their school works here are too easy. "They don't even have homework!" she complains.
Moreover, she said, American schools have too many days off, due to this or that holiday on weekday. In Ukraine, we put these holidays on weekend, so schools never close.
She once told me about her son's ESL (English as Second Language) class. The boy came back from school crying, "Mom, I don't understand Spanish."
It turns out that in his ESL class, everyone except him is a Spanish-speaking student, so the ESL teacher teaches English in Spanish. A Ukrainian boy is lost in class.
I asked her, do you want me to talk to the school about it? She said, oh no, "I told my son, this is great. You can learn both English and Spanish at the same time! You are luck that you can learn so much here!"
By the way, when I shared this story with my friends, they all had the same reaction as mine. In a way, as a parent, we are all too fragile and over-protective. Not good for the children.
The Chinese proverb "塞翁失马, 焉知非福" (Sāi-wēng-shī-mǎ yān-zhī-fēi-fú) The literal translation is: It's a bad thing that an old man lost his horse, but who would know it could be a blessing in disguise?"
The Ukrainian mother can see a blessing and opportunity in any undesirable situation. What a great mom!