The machine will grind you down, but the machine is not bigger than the imagination. Rome fell in a day. We know this.
Suheir HammadRead
I understand now my father really thought he was doing me good. Education means a lot to Palestinians. We’ve become some of the most educated people in the world through our diaspora. We’ve had to be. When you ain’t got land, your degree may be your only solid ground. May father felt (feels) that being a doctor would give me security. How can I explain that I’m not safe from anything if I don’t write?
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of education among Palestinians and the idea that writing can be a form of safety and self-expression.
In her quote, Suheir Hammad reflects on her father's belief that education, particularly in the medical field, would provide her with security in an unstable world. She articulates the deeper significance of education for Palestinians, who often feel their identity and safety are tied to their knowledge and ability to express themselves, suggesting that writing holds a unique power beyond conventional success in one’s career.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of education during a community event.
The machine will grind you down, but the machine is not bigger than the imagination. Rome fell in a day. We know this.
Every teacher should realize he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of the proper social order and the securing of the right social growth. In this way, the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer-in of the true Kingdom of God.
A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.
People in my neighborhood are so disconnected from the fresh food supply that kids don't know an eggplant from a sweet potato. We have to show them how to get grounded in the truest sense of the word.
The best morals kids get from any book is just the capacity to empathize with other people, to care about the characters and their feelings. So you don't have to write a preachy book to do that. You just have to make it a fun book with characters they care about, and they will become better people as a result.
Good books are for consideration after, too.
Dogma is actually the only thing that cannot be separated from education. It IS education. A teacher who is not dogmatic is simply a teacher who is not teaching. There are no uneducated people; only most people are educated wrong. The true task of culture today is not a task of expansion, but of selection-and-rejection. The educationist must find a creed and teach it.
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