About
Children As Change Makers 
During the 2007-2008 school year, my fifth grade students joined forces with O Ambassadors to raise awareness and funds of the harsh disparities occurring in war-torn regions of West Africa. Last school year we have again dedicated ourselves to this cause having raised, to date, $24,000, which has contributed to building a school in Domeabra, Ghana. We have the understanding that we live in an interdependent world where your fate and mine are inextricably bound with people half a world away, as well as just up town. It is with this understanding that my fifth graders chose to name their mission “The ONE Voice Campaign,” realizing not only the importance and power found in one voice, but the importance of joining together as “one voice,” understanding the enormous difference it can make in all of our lives; the difference in can make in history.
It is time to empower our children to take a stand and to stake a claim in this world. Not merely a stake in those of shared likenesses, but a stake in humankind, globally. My students share the desire to impact the state of the human condition, internationally. Social justice is at the core of our studies, not mandated by state curriculum but mandated by conscience. As an educator, this is my purpose; to evoke change, to stretch the minds of children to see outside of themselves and to not only empathize with the conditions of our global community, but to feel the outrage with the apathy that has produced an “us” versus “them” mentality. In short, the issues we care about can be summed up concisely. We care about “them”…not just “us.” For they are the extensions of us…our international brothers and sisters who share equal value, yet receive none of which they are inherently owed.
While dedicating our voices to those who have none, those who are suffering spirit crushing levels of poverty in war-torn regions of our world, we also dedicate our voice to all those who are screaming out to be heard, but who have been silenced by their circumstances. While living in a great nation overflowing with abundance and material opulence, we too are facing great disparities in our treatment and care of our children. Our pervasive child poverty of more than 13.3 million poor American children is unacceptable in our more than $13 trillion economy. In a world overflowing with astonishing inventions and amazing technological advances, we are unable to protect, provide for, and equally educate each of our children. We must choose to invest now in our nation’s most precious resource, of who are gifts to us, for if we do not, the consequences will be much too grave later.
While I strive to empower my students to become a voice for the voiceless, with hopes they will one day champion for the oppressed, I realize we must be their champions now. The crusade for the welfare of all children is intimately connected to the very essence of who we are and who we will become. As you read the following essays composed by my classroom community of change makers I hope they will inspire you to join them in a mass movement inspired by hope and sparked by their urgent demand for justice, which can only be found in equality. As they begin a crusade towards a better tomorrow, I invite you to join me by affirming our faith in their promise as we continue our crusade for them, for their future…for children of not only our great nation, but for every child whose destiny is tied up with our destiny, whose freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. The time has come to unite as one voice.
As you read through the essays compiled in our book, ONE Voice, I hope you feel the passion and urgency these fifth graders feel as they have began to recognize their own power to become change agents in our world. I hope they inspire you as they inspire me.
-Taylor Hoffmann
