Speak Truth to Power
Friday, January 20, 2017
No music as students enter.
Comment made: "seems dead in here"
Very little eye contact between me and them.
12:30 hits, I walk silently to the door, pull out the stopper, and let the door slam on its own.
My heart pounds; my entire body pulses.
I make my way to the front of the room and begin reading a letter I composed the day before:
An Open Letter to the Disrespectful
I have drafted and redrafted this post so many times. For today (Friday) to really have the impact it should on an outsider, you have to understand what went down on Wednesday. Here's the very condensed version:
During my adaptation of this lesson, a group of boys were very disrespectful. I became livid, gave a very short impassioned speech, and then I couldn't let it go.
To add to the disappointment in the maturity level of said boys, a student dropped because he/she felt isolated due to his/her classmates' immaturity.
Below you will find [screenshots of] the Prezi I created for Friday's class. While the first slide was projected, I read my letter.
I'm not sharing it here because I need it to stay within the walls of the classroom (and the inboxes of my superiors who have supported me through all of this).
As you click through the gallery, you will find the rest of my presentation with a few class-reminder slides left out. My original plan was to watch Bryan Stevenson's We need to talk about an injustice TED Talk and then split and answer questions via chat stations. However, Dena Simmons' TED Talk proved to be much more relevant and pertinent to my situation at hand. I highly encourage you to watch both.
Go ahead; click through to the last slide. I'll wait.
Our field trip took us by foot to Young Harris College's Susan B. Harris Chapel, the hub of the campus's justice week festivities (MLK Day was the Monday before all of this).
Outside the chapel flew a banner.
JUSTICE was written in black, and the campus community had the opportunity to add justice in their own handwriting.
We took that opportunity.
We all "signed" the banner, and I closed with these words:
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Never have I, to my knowledge, spoken truth to power--spoken aloud to a group of students about something in which I truly believe and against the actions this same group displayed 48 hours prior.
And yes, as I write this, I have already received feedback. Two different students have thanked me for what I've done so far and have let me know they look forward to the rest of the semester. My administration and other colleagues have congratulated me on standing for what I believe in, and I'm still coming off the high.
Whenever you can, always speak truth to power.
