We’re living
through a moment in which all of us around the nation and world are in
desperate need of ways to come together. When leaders are not focused on
finding ways to deepen our understanding and acceptance, we cannot wait for
them to decide that these things matter. We must step forward and take the lead
in whatever ways we can.
In my job as a teacher, I teamed up
this fall with an inspiring colleague to host a “one read” program in which we
invited students, parents, staff and community members to read and discuss the
book Outcasts United, written by
Warren St. John. The book chronicles a soccer team near Atlanta made up of
refugee teens and the extraordinary coach who helps them grow and find their
place in a new land. At our book discussions, we invited Syrian and Iraqi
refugee families to talk at the school, and also heard from one of our school’s
teachers who fled the war in Bosnia more than two decades ago. These
conversations provided a depth of awareness that many of us did not have. We
left one session inspired by with the words of 16-year-old Abdullah, who has
been in America for a year after fleeing both Iraq and Syria: “I have something
to fight for,” he said, “and that is my future.”
As adviser of my school’s community
service club, I’ve worked with students in volunteering at an extraordinary
refugee assistance program hosted in a Jewish temple in town. I’ve also helped
my students rake leaves and sell candy to raise money for hurricane relief in
Puerto Rico and Texas (our donations to Puerto Rico support a nonprofit that
provides solar energy to residents, and it was founded by a 15-year-old). And I’ve
joined with these amazing teens on Friday nights as they make lunches and deliver
meals to homeless and other low-income individuals in Manhattan.
As co-coordinator of a
peer-mentoring club, I’ve helped train juniors and seniors to lead freshman
discussion groups on issues such as friendships, bullying and stereotypes. In
their last discussion, the freshmen and upperclassmen discussed the “bystander
effect,” and pondered the reasons why we often fail to step in when others are
in need. We compared stories of people who have not stepped in with the story
of Wesley Autrey, who more than a decade ago dove onto a subway track to cover
a man who was having a seizure as a subway car passed above them. The students
read and asked themselves: What does it take to find the strength to help
someone in need?
As a journalism teacher and adviser,
I’ve steered my students toward a close study of how the words “fake news” have
evolved over the past year, and what this issue has meant to our own sense of media
literacy. I’ve also advised ambitious student reporters who have taken on meaty
issues such as mental illness, gun control, political involvement and sexual
harassment for their stories in our student-run newspaper.
At our annual state teachers’
convention, I attended workshops on Islam, opioid abuse, sexual orientation, gender
identity and culturally responsive classrooms. At my church, I’ve joined an
anti-racism committee formed by one of our church pastors. At home, I’ve read
Ta-Nehisi Coates’ We Were Eight Years in
Power to consider the ways in which America’s outlook toward race changed
throughout the previous presidency. I’ve started reading Isabel Wilkerson‘s The Warmth of Other Suns to better
understand the impact of the Great Migration on our country. And I’ve continued
reading Nikole Hannah-Jones’ New York
Times Magazine stories on school segregation, to gain a clearer view of how
this issue has deepened instead of lessened over the past half-century.
I know I’m just a teacher, writer
and citizen with a few areas of influence, and I can’t change the world. But I
can do my part to help. And I’m ready for more. After years of considering it,
my wife and I are finally looking into solar energy. I want to read the new
John Green novel that delves deeply into mental health. I have a student
reporter who wants to do a story in which she gives $10 to a few people with the
requirement that they find unique ways to give the money away, inspired by a New York Times story we read. And those
service club kids are still raising money for hurricane relief, and they want
to spend some time with senior citizens at an assisted-living center before the
holidays.
In his song “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout)
Peace, Love and Understanding,” Nick Lowe asked questions more than 40 years
ago that seem more than relevant today:
As I walk on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony
I don’t know all the answers to Lowe’s
questions. But I do know that I’m not giving up.
