Mohandas Gandhi once said “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” It is a motto that I try to live my life by, and I have it posted in several prominent places – on my office door so that it’s the first thing I see before I begin my day, in the hallway at my school so that I pass by it frequently, and throughout my house so that I never forget my purpose in life.  It is a quotation that I have taught to my 1^st-3^rd grade students in my classroom and to elementary, middle, and high school students whom I have counseled on Saturdays.

   I admit it. I am a quotation junkie. I have inspirational quotations posted and/or tucked away in some very peculiar places – the manual given to me by my school district to access our complicated informational system, on the dashboard of my car, in my usually depleted personal checkbook registry, on my spare tire, the bag of potato chips in my pantry, the bag of kitty litter in my basement,  my fuse box in my 90 year old home, and on the vacuum cleaner. You get the point.

   I also have quotations posted throughout my school building, on stacks of paperwork in my office, and on my day planner.  I have quotes from Mahatma and Indira Gandhi, Tolstoy, Tom Likona, my personal friends Marvin Berkowitz and Chris Van Mierlo (both educators), Kahlil Gibran, Alfie Kohn, Mother Teresa, Toni Morrison, Barbara Kingsolver, Arandati Roy, Alice Walker, Nadine Gordimer, Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, Martin Luther King, Jr., Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey, Mohammed, Aristotle, Confucius, Jesus, Buddha, Maria Montessori, Rueven Fuerenstein, Lakota sayings, some incredibly intuitive 2^nd and 3^rd grade students’ words, and proverbs from a multitude of ethnic groups. Why? Because I value optimism and, more importantly, wisdom.  The words of people who have been just as desperate as I feel at any given moment, despite the era or circumstance, are uplifting. The words of our great leaders, many silent voices in a cacophony of injustice, soothe my soul.

    But as an educator, my favorite quote is one by A.K. Benjamin: “The good of a nation demands the consideration of serious ethical questions. If education ignores the value and moral aspect of the human psyche, where will society find citizens able to make mature moral decisions?”

   Heavy stuff for anyone, but as an educator, it spells out my mission.

   As the leader of a multi-ethnic, urban school, I am faced with the challenge of not only ensuring a free and appropriate public education for all students, but also with the honor of educating my young citizens to be active, pro-social, empathetic, altruistic members of a pluralistic society which, in actuality, does not exist. Our school is one of many cultures (eleven languages, including English, are spoken here), all trying to adapt to the “American Way” of life without losing the fundamental rights provided by, protected through, and ensured by the U.S. Constitution.

   Yet the very society that I am serving and preparing my students to participate in seems to have little regard for the very differences that make this nation unique, be it related to ethnicity, socioeconomic status, culture, race, gender, sexual preference, religion, or degree of disability. Try explaining that to a seven year old in terms of understanding. Our society perpetuates dependency and co-dependency. You think equal rights exist? Tell that to a black male pulled over for a DWB or LWB (Driving While Black, Living While Black). Tell it to a non-English speaking family with an 11-year-old child as the sole interpreter. Tell it to our young females who are bombarded by the media with messages that perpetuate female objectivism. Tell it to a Bosnian child who, with no support, is thrown into an educational setting with Serbs.  Tell it to our citizens of Afghani heritage who suffer simply because of their heritage.  Tell it to the gangs, johns, prostitutes and drug dealers whose presence overshadows the WALK signs on our street corners. Tell it to the families who knowingly prostitute their children to make a living. Tell it to a kindergarten student who comes to school just to eat breakfast and lunch. Tell it to families receiving federal and state subsidies with no way to break out of the entitlement syndrome. Tell it to any person living in America who has experienced first hand the institutionalized racism that pervades our society. Equality in America is a farce.  

   We embrace fame and fortune, rewarding movie stars, sports heroes, and musical successes with riches and accolades, while ignoring our service workers – our  teachers, police personnel, firefighters, nurses, social workers, and social volunteers. We, as a society, embrace the fallacies that our very nation was founded on – we get what we deserve, and everyone can achieve his/her dreams if we are smart enough and work hard enough. You know, the pull-one’s-self-up-by-the-bootstraps mentality. Sorry, folks, but a 12 year old with a 75 IQ will never be a rocket scientist; no matter how hard he/she works. And the ER nurse working back-to-back 12 hour shifts or an inner city teacher will never earn even a tenth as much as someone with a triple platinum CD.

   If you’re interested in imperialism, you really don’t have to go back to colonial times; we have carried over that mindset for the past 200+ years. Take a look at our ghettoes. Walk down the street after dark in some of our inner cities. Read the newspaper. Surf the WEB. Modern day imperialism is all around you.

   We all have choices. We can choose to learn from the past and work to amend our county’s mistakes, or we can choose to perpetuate the stereotypes that dehumanize our brothers. We can complain about the inadequacies of the upcoming generation, or we can choose to teach and model the values we want for the future. My love for quotations is just a simple way to engage in dialogue and a similarity of beliefs with visionaries of the past, to somehow connect myself with a world that I had very little voice in entering, but will need a megaphone to exit. We can all make a difference, beginning now.

Author Janis Wiley is a former SCC student who has almost completed a Ph.D. in education, has taught in the City of St. Louis School District as an elementary school teacher, and has just taken on the position of principal of Mann Elementary School in St. Louis.  She lives where she works and where she grew up, in the city of St. Louis.