When I Was Young, I

In Public Schooling, Social Policy Has Been Turned Back Almost One Hundred Years.

I'd Love To Go Back And Teach Primary School. I Used To Teach Fourth Grade And Fifth Grade. I'd Love To Spend Several Years Teaching Kindergarten Or Maybe Third Grade.

The Greatest Difference Between Now And 1964, When I Began Teaching, Is That Public Policy Has Pretty Much Eradicated The Dream Of Martin Luther King.

What I Tell These Young People Is, The World Is Not As Dangerous As The Older Generation Would Like You To Believe. Anyone I Know Who Has Ever Taken A Risk And Lost A Job Has Ended Up Getting A Better One Two Years Later.

The Future Teachers I Try To Recruit Are Those Show Have Refused To Let Themselves Be Neutered In This Way, Either In Their Private Lives Or In The Lives That They Intend To Lead In School. When They Begin To Teach, They Come Into Their Classrooms With A Sense Of Affirmation Of The Goodness And The Fullness Of Existence, With A Sense Of Satisfaction In Discovering The Unexpected In Their Students, And With A Longing To Surprise The World, Their Kids, Even Themselves, With Their Capacity To Leave Each Place They've Been ... A Better And More Joyful Place Than It Was When They Entered It.