Opinion: Critical literacy, empowerment, and fairness

by Michael R. Parker

Last night I heard the President of the United States of America, the land of the free, the home of the brave, with liberty and justice for all, call for once again a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

Last night I heard one of the board members of my school district tell principals how my life "style" is a choice, a bad choice.

Today I read in the newspaper how the mayor of a small town in upstate New York is being hauled off to court for marrying people who are in love. Oh, the people he married? Same sex.

Yesterday, I heard on NPR of the gay couple who adopted unwanted, unloved children being told they were welcome in the Catholic Church with their children. But, they should not "act" gay, or behave in any manner that would cause other church members to question their heterosexuality, but, they are welcome.

Tonight, I realized how and why I teach from a perspective of critical literacy. For all my life, I have been silenced too often. Don't ask and I won't tell. Or should it be don't tell and no one will ask.

Critical literacy offers me the opportunity to feel empowered, to be seen, heard, acknowledged and appreciated for who and what I am. Critical literacy therefore takes the power that I have been given, infuses my very soul and heart, and sends that power out into the classroom, to my students, to each and every one of them.

The power of critical literacy fills them, and with this new power they know that they are respected, valued, and appreciated for who they are.

They have a power I never had, never was given. The power to treat everyone as equals, no matter what. The power to right a wrong, the power to bring justice to an injustice. The power to ask and the power to tell. The power to think and the power to act. The ultimate power, the power to leave the world in a better place than where they found it.

So why teach with a critical literacy approach? That is why. To teach so that the future will know that the United States can be the home of the free, the land of the brave, with liberty, and justice, for all!

Michael R. Parker is a fifth grade teacher at Sunrise Valley Elementary School in Reston, Virginia.