Her poetry is her voice. And in her keynote address at ASCD's 54th Annual Conference and Exhibit Show, Alice Walker recited the poems she hoped would encourage educators to help students learn more than just facts and figures, but also such qualities as patience, self-respect, and compassion.
<POEM><POEMLINE>Expect nothing</POEMLINE><POEMLINE>Live frugally on surprise</POEMLINE></POEM>
There is a moment in learning when "you feel that you cannot possibly get it," Walker said. "And in that moment there is so much panic about not getting it that you lose your grip and you turn to something else." Educators, stated the Pulitzer-prize winning author, must help students develop "the ability to sit through that moment" and not "stuff into the self" anything that is distracting.
<POEM><POEMLINE>Be nobody's darling . . .</POEMLINE><POEMLINE>Be an outcast</POEMLINE><POEMLINE>Be pleased to walk alone</POEMLINE><POEMLINE>Uncool</POEMLINE></POEM>
Educators must help students understand that they "have to stand alone," Walker said. This is especially important today, she noted, because too many of "our children feel that they have to stand with everybody else wearing Nikes™." It's truly crucial, she asserted, that students know "that there is a path for the solitary person."
<POEM><POEMLINE>Never offer your heart</POEMLINE><POEMLINE>To someone who eats hearts.</POEMLINE></POEM>
Respect, Walker proposed, begins with the self. Those who teach young people must help them know "how precious is the self, how precious is the heart, and how precious is the spirit." Students will know love when they have that sense of self-worth, she suggested, and they'll understand that when love is real and true, "it is to be respected always."
<POEM><POEMLINE>And now,</POEMLINE><POEMLINE>Sail away to Africa</POEMLINE><POEMLINE>Where holy women await you on the shore</POEMLINE><POEMLINE>Long, long, have they practiced the art of replacing hearts</POEMLINE><POEMLINE>With God and song.</POEMLINE></POEM>