DARE TO DREAM…CHANGE THE WORLD
Edited by Jill Corcoran, illustrated by J. Beth Jepson
What a beautiful collection of poems that inspires and challenge. We all have prejudices and we all have felt discrimination. Who has not been bullied, left out, not chosen to be on either side’s team? Who has not turned away from someone who talks weird, in “broken-English,” and might be “dangerous?”
DARE to DREAM describes in verse and in narration, the many ways individuals, including children, have changed the world. Some have been in little ways, others in big ways, courageous ways, such as the way Sylvia Mendez, when only ten years old, dared to enter an All White school. It was 1946 and in California, Hispanics were restricted to “Mexican schools”. Sylvia’s parents filed suit and won. But it was Sylvia who dared to step into a classroom where she met a wall of hate.
“Eyes sharp as icepicks pierced
the windowpanes as if seeing
a Mexican for the first time.
Every door was locked with a
Secret combination of frowns.
How can anyone ever get in?
Sylvia asked. Someone must know
Who has the right key…
She looked up at her mother.
Maybe me.”
This month with school starting, new students arriving, we think again about diversity and celebrating differences, rather than shunning or excluding. These poems nudge us to reflect and ask tough questions such as: was there one white girl who motioned to Sylvia and whispered, “Sit next to me?”
Jane Yolen and David Harrison have each written poems to give voice to another type of courage, one fueled by first “not looking away,” and then by acting (penny by penny) with compassion, not judgment. David Harrison writes:
“Four-year-old Nicholas Cobb
Saw people living under a bridge, asked, why…
Nicholas asked friends to give,
Left jars in barbershops,
Made a website – Comfort and Joy…
Ten years from the bridge,
Eagle Scout Cobb,
Doing what he could,
Bought fifty-four coats
By learning what it means
To ask not why
But how
To make
A difference.
Jane Yolen’s poem “Under the Bridge” challenges our myths about homeless people:
“Once trolls lived under the bridge,
so we thought…
Mean and green billy-goat eaters…
Once hobos lived under the bridge,
Dark and dangerous…
But families under the bridge….?”
In this collection, each poem and brief explanatory narration could become a poem-a-day to read together, reflect, discuss, and write one’s own thoughts about one way to dare to dream and change one’s classroom, one’s community, or the world.
“…to ask not why, but how…”
Ashley Bryan’s poem titled “Grace” reminds us of the little ways that we each can dare to dream…and change our own world:
“It’s wiggling the hook out
of the fish’s mouths…
It’s a back turning
A head shaking
A refusal to hear
An ugly rumor,
A compromising joke,
Lies…
It’s this hand,
Reaching out to yours.”
TEACHERS: Dare to Dream poetry contest for your students:
The contest is Sept thru April. Info at daretodreamchangetheworld.com