Vol 2. No. 10
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” – Dr. King
Hello from Atlanta!
I’m here with over 5,000 administrators, directors, deans,
support staff, faculty, and students of Honors exploring everything from social
justice to building annual reports. I’ve
attended sessions on mental health, supporting trans and non-binary students, encouraging
leadership in students, building community, and engaging in
self-reflection. I’ve also visited a
number of interesting places in Atlanta – from The World of coke to the home
where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born.
And there’s still two more days! Lots
of sessions to attend over those next two days – and I plan to also visit the
National Center for Civil and Human Rights as well.
One of the things that keeps coming up all throughout this
conference is the idea that wellness is key to success – that wellness of the
mind and the concept of self-care can be the thing that makes or breaks a
student’s ability to be engaged and successful in college. It’s also come out that Honor’s students are
more prone to not only being harder on themselves, but also suffering as a
result of that pressure. Many of us know
that many of the students that find Honors appealing are the ones that don’t
always fit in easily with their peers.
Add to this the stigma attached to mental illness and we find ourselves
with a slew of issues that stand in the way of success. They have much on their side, though –
passion, enthusiasm, a passion for learning, and a desire to find others who
are equally invested in the learning experience. They have really big ideas and sometimes, all
they need is a little push to help them see those big ideas come to fruition.
And you know? The
same is true for all of us who gravitate towards Honors as faculty and support
staff have the same sorts of issues – in fact, we often have trouble saying no
and we often find ourselves trying to do EVERYTHING because we care so much
about Honors, the things it stands for, and the students it serves.
We had a plenary speaker today named Bryan Stevenson who wanted to talk
about how to change the world. One of
the things he said is that he has spent his adult life fighting for people who
are broken – the poor, the incarcerated, the excluded, and the condemned. He said that there came a time when he wanted
to quit because he was so exhausted from trying to save broken people and it
really led him to question why he had given so much of himself to help
them. And his answer?
He is broken, too.
He said we are ALL broken and we – the folks in Honors – are
some of the ones who are broken enough to change the world. And he told us how to do that.
Step 1 – Get proximate.
We have the power to embrace people, get close, and exact change.
Step 2 – Change the destructive narrative of fear and
anger. What if, instead of declaring drug
use a crime, we declared it a health issue?
Can you see how that would change the whole story….if we stopped being
afraid of that which we don’t know or understand and stopped lashing out in anger?
Step 3 – Keep our hopefulness. When we lose hope, we lose any drive or
motivation to keep going. It takes
bravery and courage to be hopeful in the face of the world around us – but we
must.
Step 4 – Good people need to be willing to do uncomfortable
things.
I have felt this last one myself recently. As a white woman who grew up in middle class
suburban America, I often feel completely out of my element talking about race
in my classrooms. I hate conflict. I hate political debate. I hate much of what is happening in the world
around us. But because I hate all of
those things, I have felt increasingly that my role is to draw attention to these
things so that the students in my classes can be part of the positive change
that needs to happen in our world.
This is Honors. So
many things are Honors and I’m learning so much about how everything I believe
in is infused in my Honors classes, even when I’m not aware of it.
I will not say that my classrooms are safe spaces because
that term has been tainted by hateful rhetoric that does not understand what it
means. What I WILL say, however, is that
I see Honors classrooms as safe places – places to be you, to find you,
to celebrate you, and to challenge the things about you that need to be
challenged.
This is Honors. You
are Honors.
