The first task in teaching is to bring to consciousness what the students already believe by virtue of their personal experiences about themselves and society.
Paul WellstoneRead
What makes community organizing especially attractive is the faith it places in the ability of the poor to make decisions for themselves.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Community organizing empowers the poor to take charge of their own lives and decisions.
This quote emphasizes the importance of community organizing as a means of fostering self-determination among marginalized groups. Paul Wellstone highlights the belief that those experiencing poverty have the capability to make informed choices, which can lead to greater agency and improved living conditions through collective action and support.
Themes
CommunityOrganizingEmpowermentPovertyDecisionsAgency
In practice
Example use cases
During a town hall meeting discussing local initiatives.
More from Paul Wellstone
All quotes βA politics that is not sensitive to the concerns and circumstances of people's lives, a politics that does not speak to and include people, is an intellectually arrogant politics that deserves to fail.
Paul WellstoneRead
The future will not belong to those who sit on the sidelines. The future will not belong to the cynics. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Paul WellstoneRead
I think the future also will not belong to those who are cynical or those who stand on the sidelines
Paul WellstoneRead
Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people's lives.
Paul WellstoneRead
What the poor, the weak, and the inarticulate desperately require is power, organization, and a sense of identity and purpose, not rarefied advice of political scientists.
Paul WellstoneRead
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There is no executive order; there is no law that can require the American people to form a national community. This we must do as individuals and if we do it as individuals, there is no President of the United States who can veto that decision.
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Invitation is not only a step in bringing people together, it is also a fundamental way of being in a community. It manifests the willingness to live in a collaborative way. This means that a future can be created without having to force or sell it or barter for it. When we believe that barter or subtle coercion is necessary, we are operating out of a context of scarcity and self-interest, the core currencies of the economist.
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