We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from Angela Benedetto of Round Lake, New York, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.

You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.

Thanks for reading!

-Emily Stivers

Literacy of the Heart: a Global Concern

By Angela Benedetto
Round Lake, NY

How can we have a positive, sustaining influence on our children individually and collectively? Recently I have been significantly impacted by two events related to this question. These events have taken an enormous toll on me, my students and the larger community in which they live, work, play and learn.

On April 2, 2009, students and staff at Schenectady High School were informed that our fourth African American female student committed suicide this year, totaling eight suicides in less than four years. As difficult as the first three losses this year were to bear, somehow it was the fourth suicide that put our school community into a complete state of crisis and despair. Number four this year meant that we could no longer trudge along carrying the heavy weight of loss, frustration and disparity on our shoulders, denying its hidden anguish.

I take this time to honor each individual in our community, and extend warm thoughts of hope and healing. When a child feels devalued, unseen, unheard and powerless, she is at risk. I have great concern for the stories our children are learning through our actions and words, especially pertaining to girls concerning self-empowerment, self-worth and healthy wholesome opportunities for growth. We teach this by modeling behavior that supports growth intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually. I speak as a “teacher leader” who understands the value of teaching as a relational experience, and the freedom relationships bring to learning.

Even as I share our story, I am aware that I am just one teacher working in one small community of learners vitally connected to the larger global learning community in which we live. And our story, as painful as it may still seem to our community, is just a small part of the greater whole. We all share the human story of justice and injustice, freedom and enslavement, hope and disparity. What are the stories that our children are learning about themselves and the communities where they live?

Literacy is the tool we use to share our values, hopes, and dreams. Even in the most challenging times, our students demonstrate their knowing. My students have shown me this by taking literacy to a level beyond understanding towards action.

The second event, which pales in light of the aforementioned tragedy, brought up unresolved feelings of loss. Notification of the elimination of our Family & Consumer Science (FACS) Department was printed in the newspaper in the untimely week following our tragic news.

Students in my “Children in Crisis” class were discussing the ramifications of eliminating the FACS program. They were concerned with completing their program of study and what the school would be like without courses offering the freedom and flexibility to openly share parts of their personal life. One student made a comment that the district should cut the Foods & Nutrition and Fashion portion of the program because they were not as important as the other classes cut. Another student disagreed, explaining that those courses may not be important to her, but were important to the students who had a vested interest in those subjects. This decision-making process gets complicated, she explained. How can we determine what is of more value to someone else? The students listened carefully to her explanation. It was obvious that they clearly understood in that moment from another point of view. From there, the students took action. The students saw themselves as agents of change.

A senior, whom I shall call Tima, stepped into her role as “teacher leader”, organizing a petition and attending two board meetings. Other students joined in to share their viewpoints at the board meeting, following her lead. Tima was born in Sudan. I remember Tima sharing her story of arriving in the U.S. when she was twelve years old during her freshman year. Tima has learned so much in four brief years. Her senior year demonstrated her graceful growth intellectually, emotionally, and socially, with compassion and foresight. Tima saw beyond her needs, and advocated for the next generation of high school students at the end of her high school career.

How remarkable! This is what I call literacy of the heart. Human dignity, equality, and self-awareness become the cornerstones on which deeper levels of self-actualization such as self-worth; self-love, creativity and compassion for others may flourish. Students in my classes and throughout the school have demonstrated creativity and compassion in their choices to attend meetings, organize fundraisers, and develop intervention projects to share with their peers. Literacy becomes an empowering tool especially when it is used to increase awareness and support the good of the whole. All children deserve this right. Their actions hit the very core of what schools are supposed to be teaching children. Think globally, solve problems, and care for someone other than themselves.

Ultimately we are all “teacher leaders”. We must strive to create unity, inclusion, and harmony in our relations. Everyone in our community has the opportunity to step into a leadership role. In doing so, we practice tolerance, objectivity, deep listening skills, nurturance and gained confidence in our own inner wisdom. As global leaders, we may then model self-empowerment to our youth through our actions. Actions speak louder than words.