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Social Justice

Who Empowers Us to Speak Up?

January 20, 2016 by Sara Nolan

Speak Up Like the Daddy Mack of Eloquence MLK Jr.'s writing gets me thinking about how to help my students speak up about what they know and see to be true in this world.  The brutal stuff.  The beautiful stuff that exists alongside the brutal stuff. King's the Daddy Mack of eloquence--whatever you think of him, it's hard to discredit that bit.  His writing, and his speeches, speak up in ways that land sound bites on t-shirts, yes, but they also unmask how our institutions and attitudes systematically undermine and destroy our humanity. He puts the painful and critical ingredients of social justice into phrasing so musical, so clear, so rich with common references, that it's hard not to listen.  That's a marker of great writing-- even if you didn't want to, something makes you listen. The reach of good writing is farther than you think To tune MLK Jr out is like tearing your eyes away from a TV where a major accident is being reported-- hard, near impossible.  I want his cadences to get into my students-- of every color and creed-- by osmosis, repetition, sustained exposure.  I want them to write better despite themselves. This blog focuses on how the practice of good, clear writing, by a writer who is aware of his or her values and character, can get you into (your dream) college, but the reach of good writing is and should be much bigger and bolder than just that. Punch above your weight It's true what they say: silence is not just the opposite of speech. The truth might move at light-speed when it's finally set free, but to speak up, we first have to slough off the weight of a thousand slumbering elephants in our shared room. They are in the classroom, too, those heavy taboos that stop humane progress. My dream, my prayer, my practice, is that every child in every school be empowered to punch way above his or her weight, to speak up with voices that cannot be ignored because the writing is too damn good, and to send the elephants back to  Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Integrity, State of Mind, Students, Teachers, Uncategorized, Wisdom Tagged With: Central Brooklyn Martin Luther King Jr Commission, college admissions essays, Empowerment, Essay Writing, Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr., Silence, Social Justice, The Teak Fellowship, Writing

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