When I was at my darkest moment as a child, homeless, cold, and hungry. I said Momma this world stinks...
She said it can change, at 11 years old an angry cynical me...said no one can change the world....
Momma said if we can't change the world, then maybe we can change a small piece of it. Then she brought us three donuts...in that moment my world changed, the anger broke, and the cynic in me died.
What I did not know, was the donut money she used was her bus fare for work...she would walk 5 miles the next morning to work.
Son, I wish I could change the world. Momma taught me, that changing the world starts with changing a tiny piece of it first. It begins with you and me.
Tomorrow, my LLA 440 Pre-Service Teachers and are traveling to Chamberlain Elementary School in New Britain Connecticut to help celebrate Hispanic Heritage. These are the shirts our Center for Community Engagement and Social Research gave us, along with 1350 dollars for books for our teachers and Chamberlain's new library.
It is a win-win for all, my pre-service teachers get to combine Culturally Relevant Teaching, Literacy, and Service. Chamberlain children get to hear cool stories and Hispanic Heritage. They have mixed some about stories about horic heroes, and others about fun and love in Hispanic families. Everybody wins, and I get to change a tiny piece of the world in honor of my mother.
James Baldwin said about writing and literature: “You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world... The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even but a millimeter the way people look at reality, then you can change it.” This is why Literacy Professors write.
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| One Mother's sacrifice and one donut change my world, I pay it back every day |
One tiny change at a time changes everything,
Dr. Jesse P. Turner
Central Literacy Center Director
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