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Cornelius Minor is one of those people who tells it like it is, and you say to yourself, “Oh, yeah.” I was first impressed by him at NCTE16 in Atlanta when he spoke about the influence of Donald Graves at the Heinemann breakfast. I captured a quote from him that morning, “We do not teach for mastery. We teach for revolution.”
Cornelius is the kind of man you could walk up to and on the first meeting hug him. He represents what I want to be. Someone who speaks up. Someone who loves with all that he has.
This weekend I listened to a podcast with Cornelius on the Heinemann website. Please take some time to listen. He speaks of being an advocate for a student who needed him. In his voice, you can hear his determination as well as his kindness.
I think sometimes we teachers shy away from advocacy for our students for many reasons. The main one is fear. Fear of repercussions. Fear for our own reputation. Fear of failure (or firing).
At that same breakfast we were asked to create our own credo for teaching writing. (Here is the podcast of that morning.) The statement I wrote encompasses my thoughts about advocacy. We must listen to our students. We have to listen without judgement. Listen to be the best advocate we can be for them.
On Thursday evening, Cornelius Minor will be a guest on the Good2Great chat on Twitter.
To join our conversation, please leave a link to your blog post below. To read more posts about advocacy, click the link.
Reflections on the Teche 