Change
As educators we should always remind ourselves that we don't change students. We create the conditions and design the opportunities for them to change themselves.
Damien: He was the kind of urban youth who you'd instinctually move away from when waiting for the subway as he hovered in a menacing shadow behind the cloak and swagger of a sweatshirt and hood. How on the first Saturday of the Weekend College he proceeded to grafitti every bathroom with a thick black marking pen, just to "leave his tag." The only kid who I ever feared could do harm to others with that razor-thin grin and eyes that gleamed sometimes like a stiletto. Until he stumbled into Jose, the martial arts instructor, and Sam, the counseling specialist, and computers. And how, over the course of three years the glowers softened, the rage dissolved, and a palpable sense of determination spread across his life. Until he even removed his baseball cap in the lobby before coming in, so you could see a boy's blue eyes clearly gleam.