Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/477973
in desperate poverty saying 'For the first time in my life I have dignity,' that makes the movement compelling and important." These days, CTA benefits from his activism. He is vice president of the Hesperia Teachers Association and chair of the CTA High Desert Service Center Council, fighting for adequate funding and good working conditions for teachers and students. Williamson is proud of CTA's history support- ing UFW. Many CTA members marched alongside César Chávez in the mid-1960s. The association, an advocate for the educa- tion of migrant children since the Depression Era, was a major influence in the establishment of California's Migrant Education Program in 1967, and CTA-sponsored events boycotted grapes at the request of UFW. CTA also established the CTA César E. Chávez Memorial Education Awards Program, which recognizes students and teachers who demonstrate an understanding of the vision and guiding principles of Chávez in artwork and essays. THE BEGINNINGS OF A AN ACTIVIST Williamson admits that in the beginning, it was all about a girl. "I was strongly attracted to a wild-eyed radical woman who was traveling to Mississippi." That was in 1964, when the Yonkers, N.Y., native was attending Union Theological Seminary in that state. "I was attracted to the leftist fellow student who was organizing the trip, without any idea what I was getting into. I went to Mississippi for a week to work on the Freedom Election (registering blacks to vote in a mock election to prove that blacks wanted voting rights) and got arrested twice." The relationship didn't last, but the idealism did. He saw the fact that not everyone enjoyed the life of privilege and opportunity that he experienced growing up. During the summer of 1965, he was a chaplain in clinical training at Central Islip State Hospital, which at that time housed more than 5,000 mentally ill patients. • Discuss heroes who stood up for the oppressed. Go beyond the "I have a dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr. and explain that César Chávez was a Chicano leader. Discuss the social problems these leaders were actually dealing with, such as having to drink from separate water fountains in the South or being forced to labor in the fields under terrible conditions. • Recognize social justice issues that are happening in today's world and connect them to past events and struggles. Discuss what actions can be taken to improve the lives of others. • Involve students in community service projects, such as recycling bottles, and using the proceeds to help others. • Demonstrate compassion and fairness. Ask students to explain how another child might feel when there's a dispute, rather than focusing on who was right and who was wrong. • Focus on building relationships and respect with students, so they know they are being listened to, cared for and under- stood. Get to know their families and culture. Model and reward kind acts and words. A revolutionary in the classroom? Yes, it's true, he admits, although the graying ponytail is a bit of a giveaway. And then there's the gleam in his eye as he takes out a stack of photos and articles chroni- cling the grassroots movement that bettered conditions for farmworkers — and ignited a surge in cultural pride and political activism among Latinos nationwide. "More than anything else, it was really a fight about dignity," says Williamson. "When you hear people living Gordon Williamson was on the picket line in Coachella with striking grape pickers, where a contractor tried to run him over with a truck. "The violence was completely foreign to me. I didn't know I was getting into." P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y S C O T T B U S C H M A N Perspectives 25 V O L U M E 1 9 I S S U E 7 W i l l i a m s o n ' s FOR INCORPORATING SOCIAL JUSTICE INTO THE CLASSROOM TIPS