Working with "at risk" Urban Youth in schools I am constantly struck by the amount of strength they display in a world that so often (and so deeply) abandons them. For one thing love and compassion are not easy to hold on to, particularly in difficult times, yet I have seen so many youth who have been pushed so far yet retain dignity and care as core values. As Giroux, Joe, Shirley and many others note this is not the story of teens we see in the press. In the media they seem to exist as only victims or victimizers or recipients of someones saving. These two links (one from this weeks NYT ) speak of so much more, of quiet bodily harm and quiet strength.

Last night I returned home from work feeling debilitated. My faculty meeting exhausted me, stressed me out, and filled me with useless rage. People don’t want change. Freire was right, there is a sick comfort in oppression, and misery does love company. I don’t want to be necrophilic and be among and around necrophilics. I stand alone in my vote against oppression at that faculty meeting table. Struck by the amount of colleagues hallucinating about change, without being able to define the change they are after. I taught my 3-hour class yesterday complete with my back dripping in sweat. The lesson was ferocious and my students completely tuned in. We all were inspired by the lesson yesterday, and I felt rewarded, but not enough to want to return again next week. After having been teaching for so long, did I really want to continue down this path? People talk about change in the hallway and pump this idea into the mind