On New Year's Day, I carefully followed my traditions: cooked collards and black eyed peas to ensure a year filled with money and luck, baked cornbread to show off my skill, and ate it all while watching It's a Wonderful Life. I always start the year with the Frank Capra film as a reminder that self-sacrifice, friendship, love, and community make life wonderful even without great riches and public recognition. Much as I adore the movie, I rarely encounter other black folks my age who are fans of the 1946 classic.
So I took special note when outgoing Secretary of Education John King used It's a Wonderful Life as a way to illustrate one of the rarely discussed challenges new teachers often face.
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