we have work to do

this week, brother mike shared this story with us. it is related to martin luther king day of course, but i think that is has so much more meaning and should be shared all the time, not just in honor of mlk!

"some years ago, i visited a middle school in denver. the ocassion for the visit was a martin luther king day assembly. when the assembly was finished, i was surrounded by a dozen or so students. one of them, an african american young man who looked about 13 or 14, sidled up closer to me and said, "dr. harding, ive got a question to ask you." with an interesting combination of boldness and wonder, he asked, "if dr. king knew that he could be killed at any time, why didnt he just back off? why didnt he just chill out for a while?"

as i stood there, considering how i might share with my young friend the reality of martin's committment, courage, and compassion, a young woman who looked about the same age as the questioner moved in to my aid. "what do you mean 'chill out'? dr. king couldnt chill out. he had work to do." 

there it was. the word. for them, for me, for all of us, especially in times like these, when it seems so much easier to chill out, to back off and away from the hard, sometimes dangerous work of challenging the racism, the extreme materialism, and the materialism that threaten to undermine our best possibilities for creating a humane, compassionate, and nonviolent democracy, king's kind of place. so the word continues: we have work to do, not just to celebrate, admire, and praise him. but, like him, we have work to do, to be." 

-vincent harding 
from martin luther king: the inconvenient hero

after we were done reading this story, we were asked to reflect on how this story and the story of our center may interesect. for me, this was such an easy question!

my work in racine has inspired me to pursue education as a career. it would be easy for me to use my degree in chemistry to do something else and probably make lots more money doing it. the thing about people who study science and are decent at it, is that they dont go into teaching because there is more money almost in any other job. so what we are left with are mediocre (at best) science and math teachers and students who cant find any way to connect with the subject matter or develop an interest in the very area that we need people to become competent in.

so yes, while it may not be easy and some people may question why i would choose to go into teaching after spending 4 years slaving away learning about areas of chemistry that i didnt even know existed, this is what i have decided. 

i have been accepted to the nyc teaching fellows program for june 2012 and will begin my work in education this summer! i know that this next chapter of my journey may not be easy and will definitley test me as an educator and an individual. i want to make my mark in the world of education and am excited for my opportunity to do that to begin this summer.

we have work to do and it begins with the education of our youth. and i have work to do...it begins with me taking the first steps to becoming a caring and quality educator!