More Than Words

As we started a new semester on Tuesday, I shared an Aristotle quote with my students...

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."

His quote is a good reminder that "book/ head knowledge" is only a small piece of what a true education should be and that the events, people, concepts, etc. we study must be more than words on a piece of paper, white-washed heroes, or a copper statue called Liberty! 

I hope the words we study this semester lead to a development of critical questioning and a critical consciousness full of empathy, awareness, social responsibility, etc...and a willingness to analyze, critique, celebrate, etc. the past and present so we can positively create a future where "all men are created equal."

A former slave from Raleigh, North Carolina poignantly symbolizes the "heart knowledge" and "true education" that Aristotle calls us to:

"They say we don't know what the word 'constitution' means. But, if we don't know enough to know what the Constitution is, we know enough to know what justice is. I can see for myself down at my own courthouse where they've got a figure of a woman with a sword up there. I don't know what you call it: 'Justice'? Well, she's got a handkerchief over her eyes, and the sword is in one hand and a pair of scales in the other. When a white man and a Negro gets into the scales, don't I know the Negro is always mighty light. Don't we all see it? Ain't it so at your courthouse?"