Good Advice

This week MLK Academy 6th, 7th, and 8th students explored what it means to give and listen to good advice. Advice is an opinion that is supposed to be helpful and offer guidance. Students mentioned people in their own lives that give them advice: parents, siblings, elders, teachers, and friends. Together we read Langston Hughes poem “Mother to Son” where a mother is giving her son advice about life. Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair/It’s had tacks in it/And splinters/And boards torn up/And places with no carpet on the floor. Throughout the poem the mother uses the image of stairs to represent the hardships that she has faced in life. Yet, she has not allowed them to defeat her, she continues to climb. So boy, don’t turn back/Don’t you set down on the steps/Cause you finds it’s kinder hard. The mother wants her son to continue to reach for his goals despite obstacles, knowing that up the top of these “stairs” there is success and achievement.

Inspired by Langston Hughes students wrote poems about meaningful advice they wish to share with people in their community. Please enjoy these published poems.