A Day of Inspiration

What a day! It started out with the delightful young singers from the East Bay Choral Project reminding us all why we became educators. All of their songs echoed the same message that they are somebody and they deserve our collective commitment to ensuring that our public school systems avail them of the resources and opportunities they deserve so they can be what they want to be.

Randy Collins and Donna Brazile both stressed that with the Obama administration there is a new energy, optimism and opportunity to make creative and sustainable changes in public education and that we have a chance to make a real difference in the lives of the children we serve. As I reflected on their message I was inspired but also troubled. The challenges we have today seem overwhelming. With the crisis in the economy we are all trying to do more with less. Although I am extremely grateful for the stimulus package and the opportunities it has for education, I am concerned that it will not provide us with the resources to implement new and creative school reform initiatives that are needed to address the difficult challenges ahead. I left the session feeling hopeful but also anxious.

My final session was with Josh Sundquist. What a great way to end the day! This young man’s message of optimism was different then the morning speakers. He lost his leg to cancer at the age of ten, was cured at age thirteen and nine years later was named to the United States Paralympic Ski Team. Josh left his audience with more that a feeling of just hope. He reminded us that life is tough and that there will always be obstacles, some harder than others, but that these obstacles can be amazing opportunties and can cause us to accomplish things that we never thought we could.

Perhaps this economic crisis coupled with the hope of this new administration will provide us with avenues to “right the wrongs” of our education system, ensure equity and excellence for all and see our obstacles as opportunities to accompish things we never dreamed we could.