Teachers, it’s a
new school year, a time for hope, a time for dreams, and a time to reflect. We
all have our heroes, I have a few, a few who has helped me keep my head up
high. A few who have given me a steady compass for Justice for all.
Many of my heroes were gifts from my teachers. I owe much of who
I am to my teachers. James Weldon Johnson was an African American leader in the NAACP, educator, Lawyer, diplomat, poet, and songwriter who wrote "Lift Every Voice, and Sing", This is the story of how I came to know him.
Today, I return to one of my dearest teachers. I want to share Mrs.
Stanfield's greatest gift to me. Mrs. Stanfield's was my honor's English
teacher in high school. Mrs. Stanfield was a Black teacher. She came from the
south, and she came to save us all, knowing perhaps no one could. But, she was not
some "No One", she was by all accounts what Maya Angelou called a
Phenomenal Woman. Every student and every teacher knew it. There is no
doubt in my mind that she saved more than most. She certainly helped to save
this Walking Man, and she was the first person to suggest education as a career
to me.
Every lesson, she taught was taught with dignity, honor, and hope.
She heard, I had been at the 63 March on Washington, where Dr. King gave his
"I have a dream speech". She came to take a special interest in me.
She saw something in me, in my writings, in my questions and comments.
She saw, through the football player, and she saw through the ghetto persona. She
saw the kid who hung out with some bad ones, who sometimes walked on the edge
of trouble. She saw a boy with no father in his life. She saw a boy worth
saving. She would set me straight, and she gave me a Justice Compass called
James Weldon Johnson.
When she heard my grandfather went to glory, she understood I needed to talk
about him. She called me up to her desk one day in the middle of class, said Jess come up
here. “I want you to get your
lunch today, and come eat and talk with me”. I want to talk with you about life. We
Ghetto boys did not eat with our teachers…I knew I would take some flack from the boys on this invite. I
wondered what this was going to be about, but I did exactly as she asked. Flack, or no flack, everyone
did what she asked.
At lunch, she said, “I heard your grandfather
passed. I want offer you my deepest personal condolences”. I had no idea what condolences meant…but, I would look it
up later. I did have a deep sense she was being respectful. She said tell me,
about what it was like to be at the March on Washington? I said, I knew it was important, but Mrs. Stanfield I was only eight years-old.
I remember the ride, I remember the heat and I remember being tired. What I
remembered most was my grandfather putting me on his shoulders as soon as Dr. King
started speaking. I knew Dr. King was special in his eyes. I knew on that day,
at that exact moment that Dr. King was special. Dr. King became personally special to me on that day.. I remember my
grandfather kept talking about Dr. King on the ride home.
She said, “your grandfather must
have been special, my thinking is he wanted you to hear and see hope in the actions of a living man...a just man. Your grandfather in view was a just man as well. She said, that day was special to America, and to Dr. King. But, that special day started
long before that day.”
She, said “the way I see it things is
that special day was born in the words of James Weldon Johnson. Have you heard of
James?” … James was hope and
beauty walking on earth. Every educated Black soul knows his story. His mother wanted
him to study English literature and the European musical tradition. He went to University,
studied literature and music, fell in love with the old and new poets. Everything
he would learn at the university. He would learn with the hope that the education he was receiving would lift his
people. He was an educator, a teacher, and even a principal. You should
consider education as a career. I see a little of James in you. You would make a fine teacher. Have you heard
of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”?
No, but I am thinking you think I should… That, began her real lesson, the one
not on the “Official Curriculum”, but the “Taught Curriculum”, her curriculum. She was carefully
plotting what would become my “Learned
Curriculum”. She was aware of what Larry
Cuban, our nation's Seminal voice on Curriculum meant about what students really
learn. Like Dr. Cuban, she knew that official curriculum doesn't translate into what students actually learn.
I ate lunch with her for a week. I would learn about Dr. King, Marcus
Garvey, and James Weldon Johnson. We would study how "Lift Every Voice"…became
a Black Nation Anthem…She said to me Jess, in my view...it's really a national anthem for all
Americans… She was beyond any doubt a gifted educator.
I have heard people say…what is taught is not always learned, and
what is learned is not always taught... Mrs. Stanfield’s lessons were often not
on the “Official Curriculum,” but you can rest assured her taught
lessons were always the lessons her students learned. She would turn that
National Black Anthem into an Anthem for all Just people. Justice was always in
between the lines of her lessons.
So, teachers remember that the lines between what is taught and learned can
only liberate learners if we teachers understand that “Official Curriculum” has no
real power over the students we teach. The true teacher teaches outside
those official cookie cutter standards.
Be bigger, be bolder, be like Mrs.
Stanfield, and feed your students the heroes that lift every voice. If the taught curriculum does not lift every
voice? Then, it will not inspire, will not liberate, and it will be forgotten
before the 3:00 School bell rings.
Lately, I have started saying I am an Old School Teacher aloud to people. I am an Old School Teacher, because I was schooled by Old School Teachers. I owe much those Old School Teachers who graced my life.
Here’s to every Old School Teacher seeking to liberate and lift young minds.
Here's to my Old School Teacher, that Phenomenal Woman, the amazing Mrs. Stanfield. I remember every lesson you taught. I remember James Weldon
Johnson….
“Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us.
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.” ~James Weldon Johnson
Let every
teacher in the land, lift every voice,
If you like to listen to the song that inspired me on my walk over the Avon Mountain this
morning...it was the cover of James Weldon Johnson song... "Lift Every Voice and Sing"
by the "Committedsings"
