Homework Revolution: Lessons from a 9-year-old dissident

 

Friend of MoD Cathi Teeter McCutchan shared this wonderful story with me and I just had to pass it on.  Cathi's 9-year-old was given a spelling assignment to complete at home.  As a child of the Wisconsin Renaissance, he refused to accept the hypothetical situation the project proposed and set out instead to set the injustice right: 

Directions: Your favorite store is going out of business. Write an e-mail to a friend about your last visit to the store. (He didn't like this and objected to a business having to close. So he made a little change ;-)

Answer: “Last Friday, my favorite store nearly went out of business. And do you think I’m going [to let] a store discountinue just because of budget cuts and a refund policy? Absoultly not! We had to hold protests and we even had to rearrange premisses. By Sunday people had donated $1,500! What was kind of unsual because it was that exact number, and not a dollar more. And that is how I saved a store.” 

So the next time you're feeling overwhelmed by all the work that still needs to be done, or the next time someone tells you we aren't going to win this battle, just remember: we've already won.  The proof is in the next generation.  Our children know what's at stake. They know there's no "budget cut" so big we have to sacrifice our communities to fix it. They know we have to fight for what is right, and they know we have to do it together.  And, most of all, they have the confidence that proves we cannot lose. And that is how we saved Wisconsin.