My favourite part of my 25 year teaching career was the opportunity to teach social justice. In my History and Theology classes I was able to spread the message of human rights and justice for all. Then I stopped teaching, and I wondered if my chance to spread the message had come to an end.
Fortunately, modern communications technology, and especially social media, has provided all of us with a platform for continuing to spread the word. Many of my former students are now Facebook friends. One of those students in particular has influenced me. He was one of my first black students, a young man of 12. Now he is a man of 50, and we’re teaching each other in daily chats online. This has been particularly important to both of us with the advent of the Black Lives Matter movement.
In addition to my former student, I was blessed to reconnect with my very first black teacher. It was during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and I was a young woman of 12 when she taught me. Now she is 82 and has become an ordained Baptist minister. She was a gift to me at a time of upheaval in my young life, and I saw her as a beacon of hope and inspiration. I still see her that way.
It isn’t hard to imagine myself standing in a circle, holding hands with my former student and my former teacher. I feel their goodness flowing into me, and I am overjoyed to be able to pass it on to others.
