why I was out on Friday, what I was doing in Grundy. I did so because I will be out on more Fridays - for events in Roanoke, Alexandria and maybe the Eastern Shore as well.
I wanted them to understand that as seriously as I take my responsibility as their teacher - to the point that I have turned down other opportunities because challenging and assisting them in developing their own ideas and participation is more important than any other work I can imagine doing for pay - what I have experienced, first at Wise, and then at Grundy, has so transformed me that it has become of even greater importance, it has become a matter of basic decency, of moral necessity.
Let me share what I shared with them. Perhaps you will agree with what I did, perhaps you will not. But we are all part of this community, and as I shared with my students, I want to share with you.
I explained about RAM - how Stan Brock first thought of doing medical missionary work in remote places in third world countries because of having spent a number of years in a remote part of the Amazon where it was more than 20 days walk to the nearest clinic. How his organization even today sometimes parachutes in to provide care, to people and animals, and then walks out of the remote locations. How he was drawn to doing some events in Tennessee where he now lives, and later Virginia, and now even in places like the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
I explained about MOM - Missions of Mercy - the dental program that in joint events actually treats more people than RAM. How I came to volunteer, through my political leaders program, how my visit to Wise in July transformed me.
We are in Prince George's County. A student in our district, Deomante Driver, died because of a dental abscess. I told the students that all the dentists with whom I worked this weekend knew that story.
We explored the impact of dental pain, and how it can make it difficult to eat, or to concentrate in school.
RAM provides vision and hearing testing. Most schools do not, and even if they do, many do not have access to glasses or hearing aids. That can limit one's ability to learn.
I asked them to imagine losing all your teeth before you are 40. With no idea when if ever you will be able to get dentures.
I explained that Buchanan County, for which Grundy is the County seat, has 27,000 people and only 4 dentists, 3 of whom are passed retirement age, and how poorly that compares to most of the nation.
I pointed out that for all the people who lack medical insurance, those lacking dental insurance dwarf that, and how little dental insurance actually covers.
I told them that we spend two or three or even more times per person as other countries with an impact that is uneven, that we have infant mortality rates that are in the category not of other industrialized nations, but of third world nations.
I reminded them of how Michelle Obama was savaged by some for saying that she was really proud of her country for the first time in her life, and wondered how people would react to my saying that part of the result of my experience is that I was embarrassed, really ashamed for my country.
I noted those in Congress who said people in real need could always go to an emergency room - but that I had twice been in giant emergency rooms, and what that represented.
I had trouble keeping my composure when I explained that the amazing thing was the trust in us, the hope those coming had - as they camped out in their cars on Tuesday when they were not going to be seen for treatment until Friday at wise. Where they would drive each way 300 miles on Saturday for triage so they could do it again on Sunday to be treated - because they could not leave their children alone over night. How we were thanked and hugged.
I am honest with my students. If that were to cost me my teaching job, the fact that I am honest is more important. This is a matter of basic decency, of moral necessity - for me. And I tried to make clear to these teenagers why that was so.
This was not just in my Advanced Placement classes. It was also in my classes with "ordinary" or "regular" students - although such categorization is unfair, because all of my students are in their own ways gifted, talented, extraordinary, if only someone will give them the chance.
I did not do this until the last 10-15 minutes of the period. I got through all the material I had planned to cover, perhaps a bit more quickly than I might otherwise had done. In my AP classes we explored a bit students own thinking on issues, on how they had had a productive discussion led by students with me not there, and why more of the classes will be that way.
But there is little doubt that they took seriously what I share with them. Some wrote down notes on RAM and MOM, several spoke to me about it afterward, one talked about volunteering last summer in a dental clinic. They paid attention. In part because we have built a relationship where I make clear that I value them.
I mentioned without naming those who oppose universal health coverage for fear that "illegal immigrants" will come here for our health care out our expense. I pointed out that of all the patients I had seen, there were perhaps two at Wise not born in the US and none at Grundy, although we were not checking their papers. There was one person at Grundy born elsewhere, in Maracaibo, Venezuela, only he is a dentist who volunteers for as many of these events as he can.
Today I told my students. I told them something that matters to me. That is important enough for me to take time away from being with them.
I told them that having experienced what I did at Wise, and reinforced at Grundy, that this was for me a matter of moral urgency, what Martin Luther King would describe, as the President noted many times, of the fierce urgency of now.
Today I taught, not by lecturing from a book, but by sharing myself. By making myself vulnerable in exposing what moves me.
Those who came to us were vulnerable - they were admitting they needed our help - all of us, not just those of us who were there volunteering.
My students are vulnerable, because they are still sorting out who they are, who and what they can be. They need to be trusted, to be told they are valued, that those who are not related by blood care about them.
Perhaps what I did today will be viewed by some as wrong. I think it may have been as important as anything I have ever done in the classroom.
Perhaps pride is the wrong word to apply in such a case. Perhaps quiet satisfaction is more appropriate. Perhaps you can offer a different phrase.
I did what I thought was right. I still think so.
I will be interested in your response, should you choose to share it.
Peace.