A school can be a place…
Where literacy is more than just a block in the day. More than the standards, pacing calendars, and assessments we check off. Much more than a means of defining and labeling a child, a teacher, a school.
More than something we do, school can be the place where literacy is a way of living; a means for understanding the world and our place in it, that which shapes perceptions and molds identities.
We do this with words: spoken words, read words, written words — those of our own, those of whom we know, those of whom we do not. School can be a place where words need not live in solitude, nor fear suppression and judgment. Where words do not build walls, rather tear them down through shared pain and triumph.
With words, school can be a place which nurtures identity.
Kelsey Sorum 