I am a savior. And I have three adopted children, a teaching license, and a degree in multicultural education to prove it. But what I am finding out, is that I can’t save anyone. I can be a piece of the saving, but not the whole. If I can fully accept this, and if this can be enough, maybe I can continue teaching.

Education has inherited the task of redeeming the culture. However, it is unrealistic to think that teachers can heal all the wounds, nurture students in ethical values and social relationships, provide emotional and psychological stability to facilitate optimal learning conditions, fill in learning gaps of a mobile student population, and have every student meet rigorous state and national standards. Those who pretend this is possible on a wide scale under current conditions are politicians or university professors, not educators in the classroom. Nevertheless, we who continue to get up at 5:45 and daily face the young people committed to our care must find ways of making things better. We must be tireless in seeking new perspectives and strategies that will help our students have a greater chance of living productive, thoughtful lives. We must, as a piece of the village, do whatever we can to foster our students’ development in a global society.