Hope

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all, E. Dickinson

Hope has been getting a good deal of press lately. And in looking at the work we have ahead of us here in Minnesota trying to pass our bill requiring a librarian in every school, we will need a lot of it.

Seth Godin writes “It’s too easy to criticize hope. And in the end, cynicism is a lousy strategy.”  (See Carolyn Foote's fine post on this line as well.)

From Leonard Pitts' column this morning: “Americans do not move because they are told to move; they move because they are inspired to.” 

Are hope and inspiration our missing ingredients in educational change? Seems like we have the work part nailed!

 
On a side note, as the world's-worst English teacher back in the mid-70s, I required my HS students memorize Emily's small stanza above. I'm not sure it helped any of them, but it probably didn't do them any harm either.