Blog Post #7: Be Your Better Self in a Time of Despair

Blog Post #7: Be Your Better Self in a Time of Despair Linda Christensen, “Be Your Better Self: Writing to Embrace Humanity in a Time of Despair” 

Introduction 

    Linda Christensen’s article is about how teachers can help students hold onto their humanity in a time filled with injustice, fear, and despair. She begins by naming the harsh realities students are living in, including violence, deportations, and attacks on marginalized communities, but instead of centering hopelessness, she focuses on acts of kindness, courage, and solidarity. Her lesson, “Be Your Better Self,” asks students to reflect on times when they or someone they know acted with compassion, generosity, or moral courage. The article is not just about a writing assignment. It is about using writing to help students see themselves as people who can contribute to a more just world. What stood out to me is that Christensen is not teaching writing in isolation. She is using narrative writing as a tool for identity building, reflection, and community. That matters because students are often taught to write about random prompts that have little to do with their lives. In this lesson, writing becomes a way for students to recognize their own humanity and the humanity of others.

 

A classroom should be a place where students learn not only academic skills but also how to see themselves as people capable of kindness, courage, and care for others. 

Three Talking Points Beginning 

Beginning

    At the beginning of the article, Christensen grounds the lesson in the current world. She names the bombing and starvation of people in Gaza, brutal ICE deportations, attacks on environmental and social protections, and the general heaviness of this political moment. Then she shifts and says she still notices acts of courage, compassion, and generosity around her. That opening is important because it sets up the entire purpose of the lesson. She acknowledges that injustice is happening. She is saying that even in dark times, people still act for each other, and students need help noticing that. This stood out to me because it reframes what classroom teaching can do. So often schools focus only on standards and compliance, but Christensen is showing that teaching can also help students make meaning of the world. She is teaching them to notice that despair is not the whole story. 

Middle

    In the middle of the article, Christensen explains the actual lesson. She and her co-teacher ask students to write about a time when they or someone they know acted as their “better self.” Students create charts with categories like “Others,” “Self,” and “Times I Wish I Had Acted Differently.” They hear examples from the teachers’ lives, share in small groups, and then study model narratives written by former students. Christensen breaks down how the writing lesson is scaffolded: brainstorming, discussion, modeling, mentor texts, drafting, revising, and peer feedback. This section matters because it indicates that the lesson is not just moral or emotional. It is also rigorous literacy instruction. Students are learning narrative writing skills like dialogue, interior monologue, scene building, and character development while also reflecting on justice, kindness, and accountability. That balance really stood out to me. She is proving that social justice teaching and academic rigor do not compete. They strengthen each other. 

End 

    At the end of the article, Christensen explains why this work matters so much. She says that when students identify moments when they acted with kindness or when they wish they had acted differently, they begin building a narrative of themselves as people who do not just stand by while others are mistreated. That line really stayed with me. She is showing that identity is shaped through storytelling. The stories students tell about themselves influence the people they believe they can become. This ending is powerful because it pushes beyond the writing task. The lesson is really about building a classroom community and helping students imagine a better world. Christensen is saying that if we want students to act with humanity, then schools need to create opportunities for them to practice seeing themselves that way. 

Argument Statement 

    This author, Linda Christensen, argues that teachers should use writing and reflection to help students recognize their humanity and moral agency, so they can see themselves as people capable of kindness, courage, accountability, and action even during times of injustice. 

Connections to Other Texts, Vocabulary, and Course Themes 

    This article connects strongly to Renkly and Bertolini’s asset-based model because Christensen’s entire lesson begins with the belief that students already possess strengths, compassion, and insight. She is not approaching students from a deficit lens. She is not asking, “What is wrong with them?” She is asking, “What good already exists in them, and how can writing help bring it forward?” That is deeply asset-based. It also connects to The Non-Burning House Matters Too: Colorblindness and the Limits of “All Lives Matter.” In that text, the argument is that fairness does not come from pretending everyone is experiencing the same thing. Christensen does something similar here. She names specific injustices instead of avoiding them. She does not ask students to pretend the world is neutral. She asks them to face injustice honestly while also recognizing solidarity and humanity. The school-to-prison pipeline relies on defining students through punishment, surveillance, and labels, which this article also connects to. Christensen’s lesson effectively interrupts that kind of thinking. Instead of building identities around wrongdoing, she helps students build identities around empathy, responsibility, and courage. That is a direct challenge to systems that reduce students to behavior or discipline records. It also connects to ideas we have discussed about community, justice, and identity formation. Christensen is not just teaching students how to write. She is teaching them how to see themselves in relation to others. That is a profound kind of education. 

Personal Reflection 

    This article truly prompted me to reflect, as it reminded me that students require more than mere correction. They need opportunities to see themselves as competent, capable, and human. As a teacher, I understand how easy it is to fall into the routines of redirecting behavior, managing the classroom, and pushing through instruction. But this reading reminded me that part of our job is also helping students build a positive sense of self. What really resonated with me is that Christensen values both the small and big acts of kindness. Sometimes as educators, we overlook the quiet things students do because we are so focused on fixing what is going wrong. But decisive moments include helping a classmate, showing patience, sharing, apologizing, or even reflecting on a time they wish they had done better. Those are the moments that shape who students become. These experiences also made me reflect on how quickly schools can define students by deficits. Once we perceive a child as difficult, disruptive, or behind, that narrative follows them. Christensen’s lesson offers the opposite. It gives students a chance to build a different story about themselves, one rooted in kindness, empathy, and responsibility. That feels especially important to me because I have seen how powerful labels can be in school spaces. Students begin to believe what adults repeatedly show them about who they are. As an educator of color, I want to be more intentional about creating moments where students can recognize their growth and humanity, not just their mistakes. That is what I appreciated most about this article. It reminded me that writing can be a tool not just for literacy but for healing, reflection, and identity. 

Resource / Hyperlink:

 Read the full article here: Linda Christensen, “Be Your Better Self: Writing to Embrace Humanity in a Time of Despair” https://www.rethinkingschools.org/articles/be-your-better-self You can also explore the Rethinking Schools archive here: https://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive