Dan Rather: My Love for Public Schools
Dan Rather, superstar broadcast journalist, recently made a trip home to Houston to visit his elementary school, Love Elementary School.
He was deeply moved and reminded why he loves public schools.
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He writes:
I am a product of public schools, and proudly so. Even in the midst of so many crises in our national moment, I hope that the plight of public education is not overlooked. Our classrooms can serve, must serve, as incubators: for our common decency, for our sense of fairness, for our bonds of citizenship and for the foundation of a more just nation.
I was reminded of all this in an emotional return last week to Love Elementary in Houston, where I first set foot more than 80 years ago (to write the sentence is to catch my breath in wonder at this span of time). The neighborhood has changed greatly since my youth. It is much more ethnically diverse, much like the larger city around it and the United States itself. But as I walked the hallways and met the children, I found so much in common with when I went there. There were the committed teachers and an inspiring principal – Melba Heredia Johnson. There was the spirit of optimism and the strong sense of community from the students and their families, many of which, as in my time, is positioned at the lower rungs of the ladder of the American Dream.
I knew I had come to Love to plant a tree, alongside trees I planted with my classmates so many decades ago. But this visit turned out to be so Continue reading: Dan Rather: My Love for Public Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog
