So for the past two days, we had one of the original Freedom Writers at SLA speaking to Mr. Chase’s classes. It was really amazing watching her tell her story to our kids. We talk so much about how 21st Century tools open up the world for kids, but so does old fashioned storytelling. I was watching kids as I listened to her, and I was watching kids listen to her story and connect to her experiences in powerful, powerful ways. I watched kids come up to her and just hug her afterwards, and I knew that the kids felt that much less alone in the world.

But in addition to that, my personal takeaway was about writing. She spoke powerfully about how writing saved her life in high school, and how she still writes every day. I, of course, thought about blogging and writing publicly — so different than a private journal, and yet, at various times over the past few years, just as important for me. Obviously, one of the limitations of what writing in the public sphere are all the things we cannot blog about, but I think about all the things writing in the public sphere has done for me, and I am struck all over again about how much I count on this space.

And I think about teaching kids to use writing as a way to name their issues, to deal with them, solve them, move past them and grow. I think about teaching kids to love writing, and to use writing for so many reasons. Today, Sonia talked about writing as a way to find her own voice, and I watched kids believe her in ways that they don’t always believe teachers (After all, isn’t that we’re supposed to say?)

And all over again, I am struck by yet another real life reminder of what the walk I try to walk every day — We don’t teach subjects, we teach kids. And the moments when the lessons of our classrooms transcend our subject areas to be about much more are the moments we live for so that we can be transformed by those moments — and by our kids — as much as we hope they can be as well.

Thanks again to Sonia for spending a few days with us at SLA and sharing her story with us.