| | We all need reminders from time to time about what we do what we do. I'm often reminded how blessed I am to have done the work I've done in a relatively short time. A constant tension remains about how to have a big picture impact in the work done to improve outcomes for our most precious resource while having a tangible impact on a more local, direct level. Even as I've been able to do this work on bigger stages, I remain unsatisifed. It's still not enough. There's so much more to be done.
I was inspired tonight listening to a high school senior who has grown up in poverty but who has risen above the challenges of his violence- and poverty-stricken neighborhood to succeed. He's currently weighing full scholarship offers from two Ivy League schools. This student implored his fellow students in the program to keep pressing on.
Naysayers will continue to give these children reasons why they can't succeed: their race, their parent's income, the lack of English skills their parents have, incarcerated parents and siblings...the list goes on. But this student said to use the critical voices of the naysayers as motivation to work harder and to achieve more.
I'm not sure he knows how much effect his words had not only on the other students listening, but also on the parents assembled. Their pride leapt from their hearts and beamed across their faces.
I think every day about the massive numbers of children in this country who we continue to fail, the ones who are continuing to fall through gaping holes we euphemistically call the "cracks" in our system. The sheer number of kids who dropout and are consigned to limited lives sometimes keeps me awake at night.
But I'm encouraged when I see people fighting for the very hearts and souls of these kids and placing uncompromising expectations of greatness in front of them. They deserve nothing less from all of us, no matter what role we play in this society.
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| | Posted 4/3/2009 1:26 AM - 11 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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