Doug off the Record Review
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor--
Bare.
(Mother to Son, Langston Hughes)
“I am going to kill. Do you hear me? I am going to kill someday,”
Every day, I, as a teacher, walk the trenches with my students. And, on some days, the trenches are filled with the wounded, the embattled, the fighting, the abused, and the hidden. No, I am not a therapist, counsellor or social worker. But, these students depend on me
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now--
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.