One of the questions I get a lot is Why Africa? American education needs help, too, so why take your expertise to another continent?

The main reason is that is where the need is greatest. More kids are illiterate in Africa than anywhere else in the world, and fewer kids have access to school in Africa than anywhere else in the world. But it is important to acknowledge additional reasons as well.

First, the population in Africa will double in the next thirty years, and 25% a of the world’s working-age population will live in the sub-Saharan continent. Couple that with the present challenges of global warming and force migrations, and we can imagine a catastrophe of epic proportions on the horizon. Or it can become an economic and intellectual powerhouse. The only solution is innovation, and we can only get there through education. I also assume the perspective of global citizenship. Children everywhere deserve education; literacy is a moral imperative. Just because they are born in a different place does not reduce their worth. If we build capacity for autonomy and personal sovereignty through literacy everywhere, all of us will be better for it.

Second, I am still engaged in American education. In America, we have abundant resources and expertise to address student needs; we just lack the will to get it done. I’m working on it. I spent over thirty years working on improving the state of education in America, and most of that was dedicated to addressing traditionally marginalized populations. My work building literacy programs has gained national attention and is replicated and adapted to districts across the country. I maintain a consulting role through Critical Pedagogy Consulting, where I advocate antiracist antibias pedagogy through the Racial Justice Academy. I regularly attend and present at conferences like the National Council of Teachers of English and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and I mentor teachers and leaders across the state of Connecticut.

Finally, it is time to leave the thoughts and prayers behind and move to action. We can wish for better for our neighbors, but that's not the same as helping them out where we can. We have to move past badges on our social media and taking selfies with history (Etgar Karet). We need to act. For centuries, the industrialized world has pillaged Africa for its human and natural resources. America was built by African slave labor. Energy commodities and precious metals are still being sourced from the continent at an alarming rate with limited compensation. Providing educational support to kids in Africa who would otherwise have limited capacity to access it is one way we can act on redressing a long history of oppression and plunder.

Take a selfie changing history, not watching it.