I saw someone tweet this quote earlier this evening. It was attributed it to Marala Scott:
“May you realize the power you have over your own life and make changes with that in mind.”
As I sat around thinking about what kind of post to write for today, I kept thinking of the charge Tom Whitby called for in his post, A Modest Blog Proposal:
“Teachers often offer positive education reform suggestions with less of an audience than popular media… My suggestion is to have as many educational bloggers who wish to participate, do a Post for positive educational reform on one day.”
Today is that day.
To be honest, I’ve written so much in the last few months about what I’ve heard from the media, Oprah, our President and his staff, I was afraid I wouldn’t have anything new to add. That’s when I remembered Scott’s quote about realizing the power that we each have.
We can be the change that we want to see in our schools.
We can start the conversations with our colleagues, the parents in our communities, and most importantly, with our students.
Too many of us feel powerless, or that there aren’t enough of us to make a dent in the noise that Oprah has made. Too many of us, myself included, get all riled up, write a blog post or ten, but stop short of moving forward in our own schools and communities. While I know I have made strides in my teaching since I first started, being the change in my classroom will only potentially affect the 430 kids I see now in my school, my district, my city, and my state. What about other children? How can I help them?
To be effective change agents, we must start in our own little worlds… but we need to move outside our comfort zones and speak out, too.
If you’re wondering where to start, there are well over 100 blog posts linked here – http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/REBELSbloggers – by educators who want the same kind of change you do. Follow these blog writers. Get involved. Talk to the people in your own school and community about how to move forward.
But most importantly, be the change you want to see. If you’re not making some changes yourself, why should anyone else?
Awesome post and mission for all of us: be the change. I once read a quote, that I am going to butcher horribly, from Mother Theresa. They asked with so much suffering in the world how does she know who to help first and isn’t she overwhelmed. She said something to the effect of: do the thing that is in front of you, if you can do that one thing and then the next it will take care of itself.
Love this post. I know it is from a long time ago but it is really speaking to me today.
Thank you for your inspirational words and for the link!