`Thoughts for the day' - Letters - Letter to the Editor

Black Issues in Higher Education, June 20, 2002 by Erik T. Wilson

DEAR EDITOR:

I want to say thank you to all those hands that take part in compiling every edition of Black Issues In Higher Education. I stopped in the middle of reading to respond to the May 23rd edition, specifically the first few pages. I found these pages to be uplifting and inspiring because they identified the contributions and the involvement of Black Americans in the academy. The piece about the sisters at The Citadel was excellent. Let me tell you why I found this edition so significant.

I am a fifth-grade teacher at an urban elementary school in Virginia. All of my students are Black American, and as a teacher, I have high expectations for them all, one of which is encouraging them each to research and learn about colleges outside of our immediate area. I also love to tell them success stories about many Black Americans and help them to understand that many of these individuals came from backgrounds similar to their own. In my classroom I post "Thoughts for the day," and many of them I have extracted from Black Issues. This issue is full of quotes that I think will inspire our youth with messages that get below the surface level of thinking. I try to illustrate success to them in a manner that is not superficial and out of reach. Each of your editions does an excellent job at this, but it was something about this particular one that really "hit home." It shows them that everyone has trials in their lives and hurdles in their paths, and that they have to learn to overcome those hardships and turn those obstacles into opportunities. I think that it is more or less a motivational tool for me to continue to educate our youth because I realize that a life I touch "WILL BE" a student who Black Issues will feature in the near future.

Conclusively, I just want to say keep on publishing! I have been so motivated by the article on the women at The Citadel that I am going to share it with my class! I think that Linda Brown should be commended for her work on this piece. As I read it I really felt the pain that these women were enduring. Another job well done!

Erik T. Wilson
5th grade teacher
Newport News Public Schools
Newport News, Va.