“But What Can I Do?”

“But What Can I Do?” Fifteen Things Education Students Can Do to Transform Themselves In/Through/With Education, by Paul R. Carr

1. Accept that No One Knows Everything, and That We Can Always Learn
If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. -Anatole France (1844-1924)

2. Content Is Never Devoid of Context
How can one not speak about war, poverty, and inequality when people Who suffer from these afflictions don't have a voice to speak? -Isabel Allende (b. 1942)

3. Work Locally But Make the Linkage With the International Milieu
A man of humanity is one who, in seeking to establish himself, finds a foothold for others and who, desiring attainment for himself, helps others to attain. -Confucius (551-479 BC)

4. Media Literacy Is Not a Sound-Byte
Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. -Paulo Freire (1921-1997)

5. History Is Not Uni-Dimensional
He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps perpetrate it. -Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

6. Culture Is More Than Sombreros, Tacos and Mariachis
One does not sell the earth upon which the people walk. -Crazy Horse (1838-1877)

7. Problematize War, and Fight for Peace
A country cannot simultaneously prepare and prevent war. -Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

8. Humility Is an Unbelievable Virtue
The life that is unexamined is not worth living. -Plato (427-347 BC)

9. Be Wary of Being a Follower
Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow; don't walk behind me, I may not lead; walk beside me, and just be my friend. -Albert Camus (1913-1960)

10. Accept That You Are a Political Being
Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. -Paulo Freire (1921-1997)

11. Read and Write, and Seek Out Authors Far from Mainstream Culture
Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule. -Buddha

12. Problematize the Discrepancy in Wealth, But Also the Importance of Money as an Indicator of Worth or Value
Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is in an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe. -Frederick Douglas (1818-1895)

13. Consider the Proposition That There Is Hope
There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world,
and that is an idea whose time has come. -Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

14. Examine Important Events, Personalities and Experiences in Your Own Education
Everything has been figured out, except how to live. -Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

15. Affirm That “I Can Do What I Can Do”
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

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