When I listened to President Obama's healing speech I was struck by the following words that he made at Arizona University on January 12, 2011:

Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let’s use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy and remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together.

I believe this statement speaks to what I hear teachers say when they talk about what happens when they work with hope-focused practices and strategies in the 21st Century classroom. The Hope-Focused Service-Learning Program at the Hope Foundation of Alberta encourages youth to make visible and accessible their individual and collective hopes as they work with community members and mentors.