In America we have big issues with education - in impoverished communities especially. I work with Teach For All, and so we're encouraging more people to get into teaching.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the challenges in the education system, particularly in disadvantaged areas, and emphasizes the need for more individuals to join the teaching profession.
In this quote, John Legend points out the significant educational disparities that exist in the United States, especially within impoverished communities. He advocates for greater efforts in education reform and supports initiatives like Teach For All, which aims to inspire and recruit more individuals to enter the teaching field. By doing so, he underscores the importance of quality education as a means to uplift communities and address social inequities.
In practice
During a conference on educational reform, I shared this quote by John Legend to highlight the importance of investing in teachers in disadvantaged areas.
Hip-hop is one of the most free art forms there is. There's so many sounds you can use, so many things you can bring in. You never know, man. I bet years ago people would've never said they would hear me with Rick Ross, and we did four classic songs together.
For me as a songwriter, I love when other people cover my songs.
To have the chance to see your music be elevated and to have almost universally positive response to that music, makes me feel better every day. I feel more confident and inspired, and that's fun.
Why wouldn't I help? What good reason do I have as a human being with power and a sense of empathy and morality, why wouldn't I do something?
I wrote the song "Show Me" as a prayer to God asking simple, honest questions about life and death and why there is so much suffering in the world. As I grew with the song I realized I shouldn't limit these questions solely to God; I should ask those questions of others and of myself.
Hip hop is usually a bunch of guys talking to a bunch of guys, in my experience. It's homosocial, not homosexual, in that it's almost always all one gender in a room where it's being created. That locker-room environment has an impact on the language. I think the music suffers 'cause it allows an almost cartoonish level of misogyny.
A good example is the best sermon.
One of the very important characteristics of a student is to question. Let the students ask questions.
Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or duty. It should be offered to them as a precious gift.
I like books that aren't just lovely but that have memories in themselves. Just like playing a song, picking up a book again that has memories can take you back to another place or another time.
Education and health were always matters of charity. You educated children and you helped the sick because they were good things to do, not because you were going to make money out of them. If you let the money-making principle, the profit-seeking motive, anywhere near education and health, things go bad.
You write not for children but for yourself. And if by good fortune children enjoy what you enjoy, why then you are a writer of children's books.
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