By Mayrene Bates

“Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men – the balance-wheel of the social machinery.”

– Horace Mann, renowned U.S. educator

Horace Mann’s premise is no less true today. As the daughter of a sharecropper, I can’t imagine my life, though with access only to a very inferior education in segregated schools in the South, is still so much better than it would have been otherwise. I remain forever grateful for educators and others who encouraged me, no matter how difficult it would be, not to give up on getting an education.

via Implementing Common Core: A work in progress Daily Republic.