I Went To Washington To Challenge The

I'd Love To Go Back And Teach Primary School. I Used To Teach Fourth Grade And Fifth Grade. I'd Love To Spend Several Years Teaching Kindergarten Or Maybe Third Grade.

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.

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.

An Awful Lot Of People Come To College With This Strange Idea That There's No Longer Segregation In America's Schools, That Our Schools Are Basically Equal; Neither Of These Things Is True.

The Answers I Remember Longest Are The Ones That Answer Questions That I Didn't Think Of Asking.