When the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights mandated diversity trainings for this school district, everyone pulled together to make some serious changes for the better.
An Atlanta native, Andrew Aydin currently serves in Representative John Lewis’ Washington D.C. office handling telecommunications and technology policy, as well as new media. Previously, he served as communications director and press secretary during Lewis’ 2008 and 2010 re-election campaigns, as district aide to Representative John Larson, and as special assistant to Connecticut Lt. Governor Kevin Sullivan. Aydin is a graduate of The Lovett School in Atlanta, Trinity College in Hartford and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He is the co-author of John Lewis’ graphic novel, March.
I used to tell my art students that some of the best art comes from mistakes. It seems the same is true for teaching. If we can be flexible enough to recognize the lesson in mistakes, we can go a long way with our students.
"She's just trying to act white." I remember those piercing but confusing words cutting me like a knife. I clinched my Super Reader certificate. My puzzled expression was taken as bravado by the African-American girls, who responded with a threatening question, "Do you want us to fix your face?"
"I'm done," I could have said. "Finished." I felt I had potential as a teacher during my master’s degree coursework. "You have the building blocks to make a difference in the lives of children," one of my professors wrote on an assignment. For two years, I have used the building blocks of compassion, courage and creativity to build my classroom.