on my student teacher flow…call me Ms. Swinton…

Yesterday was my first day student teaching! Who would have thought 3 1/2 years ago that I would be teaching English to the masses? Not me. I left my sick mother, my father, little brother, and sister on a long drive to Selinsgrove, PA. I left New York with a diploma in mind at the end of my journey. Now as I anticipate my graduation, there is so much more that I have gained beside my diploma. I gained a DEEPER love for my people, a bigger concern for low-income families, and a bigger heart for everyone on the fringes and not just people that look like me.

In this case, I suppose coming to Selinsgrove was the best thing that could ever happen to me. I won’t admit to many though. Now as a senior I really want to move on and make a change in the world. (How cliche?) It is true though.

My first step is through the public education system, next step, no one knows, but what I do know is that it will be an unselfish destination fully equipped to FIGHT THE POWER! 

Instead of going to law school in Fall 08, I hope to be in a classroom where I will be a diamond in the rough as a highly-qualified teacher. 

So many people ask me why would I want to be a teacher when my fortitude and ambition could put me at any top-ranking law school. It’s simple for me…the classroom that I hope to be in is the biggest dilemma in America in my eyes. There is no greater injustice than to deny a child the best possible education based on racial or socioeconomic status. The lack of a good public education perpetuates the daunting gap between the have and the have nots. This unjustly dynamic is at the foundation of the everyday struggle of the working class people. 

Of course, I will not enter a classroom with a false hope in changing the world in two or three years, but I know there is work to be done and I am willing to sacrifice much. I’m sure my story will not be as romanticized as “Freedom Writers” or “Dangerous Minds,” I know it will be much harder than the Hollywood depiction of the inner city classroom. But I am always ready for a fight. My motto is taken from the late great Malcolm X,

“By any means necessary!”

Peace.Love.Soul. 

~ by hiphop08 on January 15, 2008.