Final Project Proposal

I often say "I love teaching, but I hate schools" (insert some profanity  and an occasional verbal dissertation).  The concept of teaching is beautiful, to be able to facilitate space for someone else's development, and who are we kidding? For our own continued development as well. How beautiful is that? To watch humans grow and flourish and develop into autonomous- free thinking beings.  

                              

I think that was my dream, the reason I became a teacher - well that and I didn't have a teacher of color until late into high school and I wanted to change that somehow - but this is not the reality we live in. Through some self discovery and reading and connecting with people doing the work I've come to see the systematic destruction that happens to our babies every day. I am constantly trying to figure out how to get back to that dream. 

What kind of environment would support that ? What does a day in that learning look like? What did I wish was there for me when I was a student of color in a system not designed for me?  What are my current students asking for?

These are the questions I am continuously asking myself and they are also the questions I want to explore through this project. For this project I would like to discuss what a day in my dream learning environment will be like. I will touch on how the logistics and flow of the day will be and the concepts of lesson "structures". 

I am imagining a community school with some outdoor space and education. Project & interest based. Critical thinking. Experiential learning. Collaborative - Multi age - "classes".

Some of my inspiration comes from conversations with people I have met through this work as well as my own experience. I also read and really hold Betina Love's book very high. We Want to do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom.  This book deepened my understanding of the educational system and the assimilation model that it holds. It made me look at the roots of our education system rather than the surface problems that we see every day. Education in the country needs a mindset shift. I also am inspired by my experience in Human Development and the Youth Development fields/academia. Although this field and the field of Education have similar interests the lenses used to look at youth are so different. In my opinion the Youth Development lens is more complete.

My biggest inspiration is the youth I have worked with in a variety of spaces. I am finishing my second full year teaching, I've worked as a Site Director for after-school, I have been a Program Director at Camps, Did Americorps at the Providence Children's Museum, and have worked with youth through a few different organizations. Each of these places has shown me different ways to reach youth and I have been able to watch youth grow and LEARN in all of these places.

When thinking about this concept I will connect to the documentaryPrecious Knowledge. I appreciate the content and the passion to witch it was taught and protected. It is so important to teach our youth about us, and how powerful and beautiful we are as a people. I also want to connect this work to the reading "What Counts as Educational Policy" because this article discussed the effects of poverty on students in "Urban" school. I think it is important when looking at those effects when thinking of a new school concept, especially a community school. How will the learning connect to the community and how can it be a place that supports the community?

My current partner teacher taught me his class pledge that I quickly continued into my classroom as well. 

I am the OG

I am the future

My imagination

Brighten up the world

I am strong

I am intelligent

My story is apart of the history

Of the world

I am courageous

I am loved

I can do

What has never been done

Before!

And that is the base of this school concept.

Language and Interdependency

Thinking about this talk with Judith Butler and Sunaura Taylor has me thinking about the importance of language and how we talk about people. I think it is important to connect the language we use about something with the feelings we associate with that thing. When we refer to someone with words like "disabled" or "crazy" we are thinking about them as less then whether we are aware of it or not. Society has groomed us all to look at words like crazy or disabled and associate them with people who "can't".

Sunaura shows us and talks about how people CAN do things they just do not do things all the same. She made a great distinction between "impairment" and "disability". Where impairment is how someone is able (or not able) to use parts of their body. Sunaura talked about her body being an impairment because her arms/legs don't work as society says they should. Disability is defined by society, it is telling the world that this person is unable to complete a task or is not able to function "normally". The term has this negative cogitation that comes with it. It is important to see people for who they are. 

Using person first language is a great first step, when you see someone and define them by their "othering" characteristic you are "othering" them in your mind and helping perpetuate societal inequities. Using this type of language also reinforces someones value as a human. Sunaura and Judith spoke to being between (male or female - death or health) and having humanity questioned.  When we no longer label individuals in othering ways we may be more apt to actually see other people as human.

                                                     

I think it is important to bring up access, Sunaura discussed how when moving to San Fransisco she had much more access to the public world because it was designed to be more accessible. She spoke of curb cut outs and more accessible public buildings. She also spoke about the positive correlation between physical access and social access.  She spoke to having more public physical access exposes society to more people with different needs - exposure can lead to acceptance. 

Another important point is about interdependence. Our world will only work if we continue to grow and see each-other as valuable assets. When new ideas and ideologies are no longer shunned but welcomed and incorporated and valued we will then see a society that is truly reflective of the potential of the individuals that create it. This video is simple but shows how one decision or action is not made independently but it is connected in ways that are invisible to us. I think it is important to see and acknowledge how much we depend on other people and destigmatize the need to ask for help.

Protecting Innocence

This entire country's systems and ideals were created out of white supremacy and an illusion of superiority. This can be seen from birth in the advertisements we have, the language adults used around and about us, what hair styles were acceptable, who we learned about, and who was teaching us. Every aspect of our life was shaping our own self efficacy as well as how we see our value in the world, or rather how the world sees our value. All the messages are saying the same thing, black and brown bodies are inferior.

Growing up we are all taught to protect whiteness, reflecting back on James Baldwin discussing Gary Cooper, rooting for him to win against the "Indians" then realizing one day that you are the "Indians". Thinking you were one of the "good guys' when in reality the good guys aren't good and you are not one of them.  In the classroom you see this realization on kids faces, when they realize that the country they were taught is the greatest in the world is not the reality they live in. (This is a dope BLM Documentary I have used with youth! I think it is conversation invoking)

The truth is all of these messages were created and held up to protect white fragility. We were taught, and in most places are continue to be taught, that Christopher Columbus came here and became friends with the "Indians" and they created this mutually benefiting relationship and lived happily ever after. Why? To protect the narrative of white innocents. To this day in Black History Month is filled with fluff lessons on peaceful marches and MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech, which don't get me wrong are important parts of the Civil Rights Movement, but it is not the entire reality in any way. We are taught that black and brown folks asked nicely for their human rights and were granted them, which erases our realities and protects the innocence of white people and the United States.

When this way of teaching is challenged and a curriculum designed that reflects the needs and truths of the youth it serves it is often hit with resistance from the norm protectors. Education that empowers youth is frowned upon openly and passively. Think back to the video we watched last week, Precious Knowledge, there was an uproar because people in power felt threatened over people learning and having pride in their own heritage and history- this was an example of open resistance. Passive resistance happens so suddenly throughout everybody's work day. I think back to one of our 5th grade units, Greek Myths, the "objective" of this unit is to teach the Myth Cycle and how to interpret and write your own myths. I was so excited because I found this website full of free Cape Verdean Myths ( 95% of my schools population is Cape Verdean) when I offered to rewrite the curriculum to include these I was told it was not possible because they have always done Greek Myths and had to prepare students for what they should expect on standardized test. This was passive resistance to change because there was never an outcry but just complacency and unwillingness to change the "norm" from centering white history & creation in our public school system. Through these decisions and resistance our cultures our continuously erased, from society and from ourselves. 

When we think of "how far we have come?", because that is what we are taught - that we have come so far, we think of all the things we ought to be thankful for. This idea that attending school, walking down the street, and being served in a restaurant is something that was given to us out of their own generosity. James Baldwin spoke to the constant effort to protect white people and this country from its reality. These ideals are still held up today, look how white protestors were treated a month ago, compared to how POC and allies are treated during todays protests. The treatment reflects how people are seen in society and whiteness is innocents therefore they were treated as innocent protestors but POC are seen as criminals and are treated as such. Times have not changed much, if at all.                                                           

The continuous fight against assimilation.

Reading these articles and thinking about what has been happening in our country  since the start the importance of being seen in society has never faded. Repeatedly POC have been devalued in society and looked at as less than. Often we are invisible and cannot be openly seen in the portrayal of our society.

White supremacy and the ideologies that come with it is what this country and the systems within it are founded on. I often think about todays public schools, the rules that are forced on students and teachers of color, the attitudes and customs that are accepted in the space, even the material that is taught in the space are all dictated by “tradition”. Often when I pose the question “Why do we does this rule exist if it is developmentally impossible for youth?” I get the generic reply “ this is how it has always been done.’ Tradition.  

But what exactly is the tradition of education in the United States?  Well in 1860 the first “Indian Boarding School” was created on the Yakima Indian Reservation. The school, and the boarding schools that came all throughout the 1870s- 1960s, were designed to assimilate Native Americans to white “culture”. The tradition of public schools in the United States was born as well.

From then on public school is a place where students are asked to leave who they are at the door so a new “white” version of them can be placed inside. To this day students are forced to spend 40 hours a week in an environment that doesn’t accept them for who they are but rather focusses its energy on assimilating youth to “societal expectations”. 

Even to this day you can hear teachers use phrases like “ I just don’t understand, who taught them to act like that?” “You are acting crazy” “You are an animal” “Act right, I don’t care what is acceptable at your house.”  “ It doesn’t seem like this kid cares, like his family cares, like education is not important to them” "Your hair is WILD you didn't get a chance to do it today?" All of these phrases, and COUNTLESS more are phrases engraved into educators’ minds and tell children of color that their way of life, their culture, their ideals, they are not welcome here. The language coupled with racist policies create unsafe spaces called schools that youth of color are forced to survive.

This idea of assimilation and disappearing cultures shows up everyday in this society. When looking at COVID data Native Americans do not have disaggregated data that reflects the affects of this virus in their community. Why is this important? It is important because without knowing how much something is affecting a community we will never know how to support that community causing that community to continue to suffer at disproportional rates.

A JUSTICE LETTER TO EDUCATORS OF COLOR AND CONSCIENCE

 - This article is about the current situation in our society. What I like about this letter is it touches on the internal battle as an educator of color teaching/engaging with students of color and the struggles we face doing that.

The only way this cycle ends if the current systems, which are not broken but instead are working exactly how they are designed, are dismantled and a new society is birthed. People can no longer be erased in history books, in statistics, in honor, in power, and that is the only way.