Growing up in Jesuit schools, was instructed to write the letters AMDG, signifying ad majorem Dei gloriam (鈥渇or the greater glory of God鈥�) atop all his papers.
In a in National Catholic Reporter, Vilson, a mathematics teacher and Ph.D. student in Teachers College鈥檚 program in Sociology & Education, frames the message in terms likely to resonate with educators of all faiths (or none). 鈥淓very child needs a great school. We can't leave that up to the market,鈥� he writes. 鈥淭he Biden administration must create an educational system that allows for allocation of resources into every school regardless and because of their zip code and type. This means a system that holistically supports every school, not just financially, but spiritually as well.鈥�
ACTIVIST AND AUTHOR Vilson heads , an organization dedicated to race and social justice issues in education. (Photo courtesy of Jos茅 Luis Vilson)
Vilson, an activist, author and speaker who now heads , an organization dedicated to race and social justice issues in education, became a teacher to fulfill the 鈥淎DMG mantra鈥� His students, from poor or working-class families like his own, 鈥渢aught me and others what it meant to live out our stated values, to stand up and fight back when things didn't work out for the children we serve, and to love our work deeply even when we took serious losses and bumps along the way.鈥�
If God truly lives within each of us when two or more of us are gathered, then we need to make the spaces where we gather our youth the spaces we know serve them.
鈥擩os茅 Luis Vilson
Calling for changes to address 鈥渆ver-widening economic stratification, insufficient health care and environmental racism,鈥� Vilson concludes: 鈥淚n this way, I'm asking us to live out our stated values politically and spiritually. If God truly lives within each of us when two or more of us are gathered, then we need to make the spaces where we gather our youth the spaces we know serve them.鈥�