on education (from the calhoun school and the urban assembly academy for government and law):
“books and lecturing aren’t the only important things – seeing and smelling and talking and touching are as critical to learning as they are to falling in love”
“we want kids to be thoughtful, ethical, and compassionate, but otherwise, our teaching methods are nondogmatic. we just want them to lead authentic, engaged, curious, passionate lives”
“space is a big issue – it has a huge influence on what we can and cannot do”
“our students come from really challenging backgrounds; 70-80% of them fall beneath the poverty level. our educational focus every day is not only on academic, but also on emotional and social needs”
“we need to give them an urban education”
“hope for the best, plan for the worst”
on healthcare (from the morris heights health center):
“age has a space in life”
“if you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t make a difference in this world”
“when deciding what to do with your life, err on the side of passion”
“you always have to be thinking, ‘what’s behind this wall?’”
“when you have nothing, GIVE. if your hands are closed tight, you can’t receive anything yourself – you have to open them”
“we don’t have a world today – we have a community”
“don’t be afraid of failure; you learn a lot from failure”
“healthcare reform is real and important”
on judicial services (from the NYCLU):
“you need to take a bottom-up approach”
“suing often is not the first or the best option – we have to tackle something holistically”
“i have the best job in the world: i get to go out and fight the good fight the way i know how”
“it is so important to be an agent of what you know is right and true, and to live out those commitments”
“we’re observing a real school-to-prison pipeline”
“you worry sometimes that things aren’t going to work out, but they they work out better than you’d ever thought they could”
“we just want to ensure that all citizens have the rights that the US constitution ensures them”
“let me define civil liberties. civil liberties means that the government has no right to intrude into our personal lives. in fact, we have the right to be left alone”
“you know the starfish story? well, what would happen if, instead of trying to throw all the starfish back into the ocean, we tried to lasso the moon and change the tide? it’s the tide that abandoned these starfish in the first place. it’s a bigger, harder issue, and it means something different… but hey”
on life (from kelly k.):
“wait, please, can we not talk about careers? can we just talk about being human?”
