Social Activism

I recently had my seventh graders write persuasive letters about the one thing in their worlds they would most want to change. While some of my students wrote about rather trivial things like why our school should have a step team or why all stores should sell Vans, I had many students who truly impressed me with the depth and passion they showed. My students wrote thorough, 5-paragraph essays on topics such as sex education in schools, the death penalty, the superficiality of Barbie, curbing global warming, and selling guns in stores.

I was the most awed when a student of mine (not typically a strong writer or a go-getter) completed her entire drafting and final process, but decided she was moved by the current controversy over Arizona's immigration law and asked if she could re-do the assignment and write a letter to both the mayor and governor. I encouraged her to do so and was almost brought to tears when this student who struggles to spell and construct basic sentences turned in a heartfelt and fairly articulate account of her feelings towards this new law. She ended the letter not with "you should change this" as many other students did or as many adults would in a similar situation, but with a plea for the mayor to contact her so she could help in some way.

These few, beautiful moments when I see my students step outside of their worlds that are so often consumed by the blinders of "he saids" and "she saids" and seek something better... When they recognize their self-efficacy and see that they have the ability to do something in order to make things better... that's why I do this job. Those moments are rare, but they make the yelling, the back talk, the shoes on their heads all worth it.

And I hope Governor Jan Brewer is prepared for what is coming.