Welcome!

Welcome to the Freedom Foundation “blog” – a place to read everyday stories from everyday people who volunteer for the Freedom Foundation. These are the stories that are the life of the events, programs and efforts of the Foundation.

Some people criticize us for the faith we have that makes us believe we can make a difference. Others ridicule the idea that change is possible. But it is stories like these that you read below and then thousands of others that remind us that making a difference in just one person’s life is worth it.

The Starfish Story
Original Story by: Loren Eisley

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed
a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.
Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”
The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean.
The surf is up and the tide is going out.
If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”
“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?
You can’t make a difference!”
After listening politely, the boy bent down,
picked up another starfish,
and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said…
“I made a difference for that one.”

These are our “Starfish Stories”.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Lies Our Students Tell Themselves

by Cynthia Gibson
(Part of the 'Why I Teach' series)

"I'm too poor and too black."

That's what one student told me not long after I started teaching here in Selma, Alabama. He didn't beat around the bush, and I wasn't just reading some subtle message into his behavior. He said it plainly — that he was "too poor and too black" to make it in this world.

I hear statements like that from my students far too often. They have opened my eyes to the battle I face every day. As teachers, each time we step into the classroom we vow to fight the lies that hold our students down.

I've been immersed in the culture of Selma for the past 15 months. The world knows Selma as a focal point of the Civil Rights Movement. Presidents and presidents-to-be have come here to commemorate the city's role in the struggle for equal voting rights.

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