Charity Isn't A Good Substitute For Justice.

East St. Louis-which The Local Press Refers To As "an Inner City Without An Outer City"-has Some Of The Sickest Children In America. Of 66 Cities In Illinois, East St. Louis Ranks First In Fetal Death, First In Premature Birth, And Third In Infant Health.

So Long As These Kinds Of Inequalities Persist, All Of Us Who Are Given Expensive Educations Have To Live With The Knowledge That Our Victories Are Contaminated Because The Game Has Been Rigged To Our Advantage.

I Think A Moment Of Critical Energy Has Suddenly Emerged. But Moments Like This Come And Go Unless We Seize Them At Their Height.

There Is Something Deeply Hypocritical In A Society That Holds An Inner-city Child Only Eight Years Old "accountable" For Her Performance On A High-stakes Standardized Exam But Does Not Hold The High Officials Of Our Government Accountable For Robbing Her Of What They Gave Their Own Kids Six Or Seven Years Before.

The Future Teachers I Try To Recruit Are Those Show Have Refused To Let Themselves Be Neutered In This Way, Either In Their Private Lives Or In The Lives That They Intend To Lead In School. When They Begin To Teach, They Come Into Their Classrooms With A Sense Of Affirmation Of The Goodness And The Fullness Of Existence, With A Sense Of Satisfaction In Discovering The Unexpected In Their Students, And With A Longing To Surprise The World, Their Kids, Even Themselves, With Their Capacity To Leave Each Place They've Been ... A Better And More Joyful Place Than It Was When They Entered It.