Sunday, February 26, 2012

Moment: Man at Subway


The train stops and, just for a moment, I am sitting parallel to him
Me in the train, sheltered by the steel walls,
him in the station, vulnerable and in the midst.
He is playing an instrument,
vigorously, desperately,
and suddenly, I see from his perspective.
People rush by, averting their eyes, head down, briefcases clutched.
We’ve seen this before.  It is familiar. Ignore the needy so you’re not responsible.
But today I’m with him on the receiving end.   

Trains come, trains go.
People come, people go.
It is colors and noise and movement and somehow he seems so separate.  Fixed.  Not a part of the ‘real world.’  Things happen around him, not with him.
His necessity is their inconvenience.
He gives his talent freely to an unwilling audience, a resisting audience.
Yet he stays, plays, waits.

The doors close and the train speeds away, bringing me closer to my important appointment or meeting or deadline.
And I can forget about him.  We can all forget about him and hide behind deadlines and luxury and noise. 

And not just him, but all of them
The man who beats his cup for change next to the grocery store 
The boys who play buckets like drums in the subway tunnel 
The man with the long hair who wanders the same block downtown over and over again  
The woman who sits under the awning covered in blankets
The war veteran with the cardboard sign
The man who tries to make conversation with everyone in sight
The unemployed man who walks the trains not to ask for money, but to pass out his resume
The boys who stand on the corner during the day because school has failed them
The senior citizens who stay in their homes all day because they don’t have the bus fare
The eager students who don’t know that 60% of their classmates will not graduate
The refugees who spend their lives waiting for something better than stick tents
The teens who leave their families and think it is better for them across the border
The children whose parents have been killed or lost
The villagers who see more deaths than births since disease has taken over
The victims of the latest natural disaster
The urban slave workers who have made my shirt  

That is what character is, life is.  Deciding what you notice.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Printed: Your Fault

"The annals of international health contain many stories of adequately financed programs that failed because 'noncompliant' patients didn't take all their medicines.  Farmer said, 'The only noncompliant people are the physicians.  If the patient doesn't get better, it's your own fault.  Fit it.'" - Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, pg. 36

High five for treating people as people, Dr. Paul Farmer of Partners in Health in Haiti.  I never realized before how many parallels there are between the health field and the education field, especially internationally.  If your student isn't learning, it's likely your fault.  Fix it.

Words: Florida


"It's the perfect storm... low income families, and a school district that focuses too much on standardized test scores to provide for the social and emotional needs of the children." - A School Psychologist friend in Florida

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Words: Urban Teachers

"As urban teachers, we need to have a real shift in how we see our work.  If teachers don't connect their daily tasks to the bigger picture of what they're doing in society, they're going to burn out."  - Ms. Stevenson, resident principal