If You Need Me Ill Be Reading

[Music]

[Applause]

when i sat down to begin

planning my year of instruction with my

ninth grade students

this year i decided that i wanted to

begin by having them create an identity

map

and as any good teacher might do i sat

down to create one myself

before giving it to my students as i did

that

i was met with a few facts about my life

i grew up in a place where nearly

everywhere i looked

my eyes were met with people who looked

and sounded

a lot like i did

i attended a local church with my

parents

and older sister i went to a small

parochial elementary school i took dance

classes

all throughout high school attended a

state college

and eventually i became a teacher

i married a man i first met in

kindergarten

we adopted a dog and i traveled

1372 miles

to land here in wilton manor florida

my name is leo wolf and today i want to

talk to you

about the power of reading to build

empathy

and understanding

after high school i went off into the

world wildly curious about others

but ultimately ignorant i was unaware of

my own implicit biases

as most of us are and overly optimistic

about my ability to make friends with

anyone

as i look back on a number of

interactions that i had with people

and friends that i viewed as different

than me i realize now that i

misstepped and misspoke more times than

i can count

with a limited foundational worldview i

was left

curious but without the tools that i

needed to ask questions with

tact although i had traveled

quite far away from my childhood home it

didn’t take my mind

19 hours and 59 minutes to travel back

to the ways of thinking i developed

there

it still happens quite quickly actually

and i have to work constantly to better

my thinking

and to think through my words and

actions

and so i started to dig and i realized a

couple

of very important things that i still

use to guide my learning and thinking

today

one there is a danger in a single story

there’s a ted talk on this actually and

i think she says it best

two no one is obligated to educate me

on their culture and three

i should use my voice to amplify the

voices of others

and as i sought to implement those

principles in my own life

i dug through twitter pages and

instagram pages

and i realized pretty quickly that i had

a lot of questions

i also realized though that it was up to

me to do the work

to answer those questions for myself

all of a sudden it hit me

literature i am an english teacher

after all and i’ve read a lot of books

about people from other cultures

but because i understood the danger that

exists

in a single story i knew that i had to

consume

more stories in order to deepen my

understanding

and so i read i read

mondays not coming by tiffany jackson

and i had the devastating realization

that people do not always care

as they should and that things are not

always as they seem

i read the poet acts by elizabeth

acevedo

and i saw the turmoil of a teenage girl

trying to follow her passions

and meet her mother’s expectations at

the same time

i read the grade along by kristin hannah

and i felt the turmoil of a person

living in complete from society

i read internment by samira ahmed

and i understood the danger that can be

created

because of the fear of the unknown and

the power

of vocal resistance in the face of that

leader

i read americana by chimamanda ngozi

adichie and i understood the immigrants

experience

in a whole new light

i read the 57 bus by dashka slater

and i saw the outsized injustice that

exists within our justice system

while at the same time i understood the

freedom

that can be granted through the simple

use of the pronoun they

i read small great things by jodi

picoult

and i saw how beautiful yet complex

relationships

between races can form when people

listen to each other with open ears

and also with open hearts

i could talk to you for a long time

about all the books that i’ve read over

the past

couple of years but instead i want to

share with you a story about a student

at this very school and her experience

with literature

earlier this year i recommended that

book the 57 bus

to one of my ninth grade students she

wanted something different

and i thought that this would fit the

bill i gave it to her

and pretty quickly she came to me and

told me that she thought this story was

a little weird

i listened to her perspective and i

talked with her about how the story was

true

and that if she gave it a few more pages

she might

change her mind and so she did that and

when she came back

finishing after finishing the story she

empathized

openly with both of the characters in

the story

despite how different she was from them

in race

gender and life experiences and

i think that this really clearly

illustrates how quickly a book

can help to change your perspective on

something

as humans we often avoid talking about

our identities

or the differences that exist between us

we have a deep

instinct to protect ourselves and at

times that means we avoid being

vulnerable

we play it safe we don’t ask the tough

questions

we don’t forge the path to a difficult

friendship

we choose to sit next to people who look

like us

because we assume that they might also

think like us

but what if we’re wrong what if we’re

missing out on some of the greatest

opportunities

and best friendships that life has to

offer us

all because we’re afraid to take a small

risk

luckily for us books can help us to take

those risks

before we really have to take them they

help us

if we read enough of them to understand

people

different from us in race gender

religion

ethnicity and the like by giving us

space

and time to get to know them

books help us to see people people

with complex backgrounds belief systems

and traumas

but also people with complex hopes

dreams and ideas

books help us to learn to listen before

we judge

and to consider how a person’s

experiences shape who they are

books teach us to understand they help

us to widen our understanding of the

single story

and give us an easy way to pass that

understanding along to someone else

for all of these reasons i am forever

grateful for the impact

books have had on my life and i’m

certain that no matter where you find

yourself

on the spectrum i describe you will be

too

if you need me i’ll be reading i still

have a lot to learn

thank you

[Applause]

you