For some students, school is the only place where they get a hot meal and a warm hug. Teachers are sometimes the only ones who tell our children they can go from an Indian reservation to the Ivy League, from the home of a struggling single mom to the White House.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the vital role that schools and teachers play in providing not just education, but essential support and encouragement to students from challenging backgrounds.
Denise Juneau's quote emphasizes the significant impact that schools and teachers can have on students, especially those who face socio-economic hardships. It acknowledges that for some students, school may be a sanctuary that provides physical nourishment and emotional support, and it celebrates the transformative power of teachers who inspire their students to aspire to greater opportunities, regardless of their circumstances.
In practice
During a school board meeting, this quote can be used to advocate for more resources for teachers.
Children are coming to school with trauma, everyday trauma, that they live under: violence in the homes, alcoholism in the community, unemployment thats 80 percent, not just during the recession. We need to help treat that before they can even go sit in a class and learn about math.
I've often been accused of making anthropology into literature, but anthropology is also field research. Writing is central to it.
Some people there are who, being grown; forget the horrible task of learning to read. It is perhaps the greatest single effort that the human undertakes, and he must do it as a child.
Children want to mimic adults. They notice when you choose to prepare fresh vegetables over calling in another pizza pie for dinner. They will see that food made with love and care outweighs going through the drive-through window.
I think we have a great deal of mythology around writing. We believe that only a few people can really do it. I wrote a book called 'The Right to Write.' In it, I argued that all of us have the capacity to write. That it's as normal to write as it is to speak.
What many students most want from college, although they would never admit it, is an authority structure. There is a demand for an authority which they can then reject; they want to be told what to do, so they can disobey. It is a textbook case of bad faith, a flight from freedom.
When I was in the Peace Corps I never made a phone call. I was in Central Africa; I didn't make a phone call for two years. I was in Uganda for another four years and I didn't make a phone call. So for six years I didn't make a phone call, but I wrote letters, I wrote short stories, I wrote books.
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