What is the Point? Equality, Equity, Reality & Liberation

What’s the point?

I saw this tweet from educator Cat Flippen yesterday. If you’re not in education, you may want to, after reading this slide from Trevor MacKenzie’s keynote at the EdTechTeam’s Southern Summit, blow its message off with scorn. “Kids don’t know how easy they have it.” “The point is, you have to put your head down and get the job done.” “Quit being a cry-baby.”

Many kids struggle with doing things because they don’t see the point. I think it’s a far more universal problem than just in our kids.

Why do I write this here? Because we all have skin in the game. This is not just about our kids, although most of us do have children in our lives in some fashion, even if it’s “just” the neighborhood kids down the block. We all have a role, responsibility and interest in this world as long as we’re breathing. It matters to us all.

Have you ever put your hands up in the air in frustration and said, “What am I supposed to do about it?!? Why should I even bother!?!” It’s those feelings that give rise to the idea “What’s the point?”.

If we have no hope or feel no value, we see no point.

From Kate Crawford at the same summit, came a tweet about finding and focusing on students’ passions to inspire growth. It came through another educator, Becky Anderson, who asked what would life be like if this practice were widespread- what if we were all able to live as we love? In my mind, it could be a path to, or product of, liberation.

What do I mean by “liberation”? Here’s a tweet from Maggie Schumacher with a visual. Ms. Schumacher was at The Wisconsin State Reading Association’s (WSRA) conference in Madison, WI. (BTW, here’s a link to an article from the person who appears to be the creator of the original graphic that this one is based on, Craig Froehle.) In essence, living in liberation means there are no barriers- we all have access to what we need and no one is being held back, up or down.

Reality today is that some people have a large number of things going against them and some have a large number of things going for them. These things can include one's sex, sexual preferences, religion, physical or mental abilities, ethnicity and/or economic level.  There’s also a group in the middle that sloshes around a bit. That group has, historically and rather loosely, been considered the middle class, and was where the “average” citizen found him or herself. As our social structures have evolved, that’s changed dramatically. Many in that group find themselves sliding toward the group with more things going against them. For instance, are you living paycheck to paycheck or overwhelmed at the cost of college today? Do you worry regularly you may lose your job? Has a boss messed with you for their own advantage and you've felt helpless to do anything about it?

Our kids see and sense our struggles. They hear our hate and fear. They live it all- the bad and the good.

It’s natural to want to do something if we feel there’s a problem. We want to scratch the itch. If we don’t have the tools or means to fix something, however, we get frustrated. Same goes for our kids. They throw their hands up and ask themselves: “What am I supposed to do about it?!? Why should I even bother!?!”

It’s hard enough to get to equity from today’s reality, let alone liberation. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible or that we can’t at least try. Today, we try it in the classrooms with things like personal learning programs. We try to get out of, and give the most to, each student. We do it when we focus on social and emotional learning: how people can work together cooperatively and practice respect for one another. It has to go beyond the classroom.

If we respect one another, we don’t begrudge helping someone out when they need it. We also try hard and stay involved when we feel respected and included. That goes for young and old, alike. 

If respect and cooperation for all were key values, our laws would curb disrespect and foster growth of all people. We’d respect people’s choices as long as they didn’t harm others. Our social structures would support human value as best as they could. Do they do these things today?

Maggie Schumacher referenced Dr. David E. Kirkland, Director of NYU Metro Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools, whose own thoughts (from his blog) include this:

“...I have been wondering about the role of schooling in shaping better people. For example, I’ve been asking questions such as how does one finish school still holding discriminatory perceptions of people? Are we not doing our jobs as educators?

Just as we wouldn’t allow students to finish school unable to read, write or calculate, why must we let them finish school unable to love and accept others?”

Now that’s quite the question. Why must we (or why do we) let students finish school unable to love and accept others? Sounds idyllic. But what an idea. And not one that lies in the laps of educators alone.

It will take conversation upon conversation. Everyday people reaching out to each other. Citizens actively deciding what really matters and not standing on the sidelines. It will take coalition-building. It will take creativity. It will take resolve. But there would be a point and a purpose.

Why not try?

November Thoughts: Light or Dark Crossroads

Near the shore, huddled fowl do bob, their

Observant eyes tracking prey and gulls alike.

Vibrant mounds of shed leaves abound,

Ending their summer life to cold autumn’s rot.

Maybe it will snow, perhaps it will sleet

By the time night falls across this scene.

Enjoy the light whilst we can, I cry.

Remember to keep the spark of life inside.

This time of year can be dangerous in the Northern Hemisphere. Everything is withdrawing: light, temperature, life-forces. Trees shed, animals migrate. The world wants to rest and protect. It’s so easy to turn this opportunity to rest and reflect into a cloak of darkness. Viewpoints can become shaded by feelings of helplessness and loneliness.

November can be a reminder to come back to our truths. In summer’s robust madness, we can lose sight of our ultimate goals. Or, we may have discovered something in our fun explorations that we need to consider further. This is a perfect time to do that.

We are not hopeless.

We each have means to affect ourselves and those around us. I was reminded of this today with the announcement that BTS has signed a longterm deal with UNICEF to help world youth. As stated on their new website love-myself.org,

“Children and teens have the right to pursue their lives in safety and happiness and to grow with love and care. At this very moment, however, some of them are falling victim to various levels of violence. Many of them are unable to enjoy their fair share of chances to dream of a healthy future.”

This is a huge task they are taking on. Bullying. Physical abuse. Sexual abuse. Violence towards those you feel aren’t like you. Can they fix everything? No. Can they try? Yes. Can you and I help through our deeds or develop our own plans? Yes.

Yes. Now. Always. Together.

That’s the key we need to hold onto: Yes. That’s the spark of life. It’s hope. It’s optimism. It’s what can get us up in the morning when darkness wants to linger and root itself inside us.

I wrote When's It Gonna Change? Right Now. in response to the song, Change, that BTS’s leader, RM, did with rapper Wale this spring. The song declares that today’s young adults need to stand up and with each other. Clearly, this Unicef deal was in the works during this collaboration. All this effort is a great example for us all (young, old and everyone in between): don’t give up and don’t just think of yourself. Look for opportunities and try.

Try. Try. Try.

In Our Classroom. In Our World?

This great visual popped up on my Twitter feed this week. Thank you, Susan Zanti! These are powerful statements of living.

In our classroom:

We respect each other.

We try our best.

We are a team.

We learn from our mistakes.

We create.

We celebrate each other’s success.

With lightning speed, I saw a substitution I wanted to make. That I needed to make. That I wondered if I COULD make or SHOULD make it.

If “In our classroom”, then why not “In our world”?

We respect each other.

I don’t have to agree with the person next door or on the other side of the world. However, I can acknowledge their right, just as much as my own, to live and be in ways they see fit. I can choose to not judge or compare. I recall a phrase I found somewhere: “With harm to none, let it be.” I began my book, Dear Teachers, with a call to do just that each school year.

We try our best.

In my essay Yearn, Embrace & Try, I talked of the power in believing in the word YET. My garden may be a mess while another’s is gorgeous lines and perfect symmetry. I may not have much, but I own it by trying. If my mindset is that, I can lay my head on the pillow at night knowing I worked hard and tried my best. I can sleep the sound sleep of the honorable and try again come dawn.

We are a team.

Everyone on the planet is on the same team. We’re all human. We all love our families and friends. We all eat. We all breathe. We all seek a place and sense of belonging. In May, I wrote of this in I Need Somebody, the inspiration of which I later discovered is as an actual song lyric line of Kwon Ji Yong's (G-Dragon’s) June 2017 song, Super Star. Certainly, there are differences of perspective, appearance and orientation, but we go back to our first guiding principle for that: we respect each other.

We learn from our mistakes.

Oh, how we botch things up. We yell. We screw up. We get upset. We go down the wrong road. We’re misled. We get scared and lie. We tear down what we have desperately tried to build or become.

All those things are how we become bigger, stronger and smarter. One of my most popular posts was all about this: Stronger By Falling. Errors can’t (and shouldn’t) be avoided. What we have today won’t be perfect. Nor will it be tomorrow. But it will be better than before if we’re following those first 3 principles: if we respect and try as a team.

We create.

So, we have a catastrophe on our hands: what do we do? We roll our sleeves up and create some solutions. We design. We build. We revise and do it again. If we respectfully work together and try our best, we get that forward momentum working in our favor. Humanity has a creative potential that has given us everything from rich wool sweaters to the Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan, and the fount is not drained dry yet.

We celebrate each other’s success.

Why grumble over another person’s success? If we’re not comparing ourselves to others, if we’re living our own lives following our own ideals, we should be content. As a corollary to the principle of us all being on the same team, when another succeeds, we all can move forward from what they have achieved. The successful one, in turn, will share his/her gifts because they understand they do and are nothing alone.

In our classroom. In our world?

How many of these 6 tenets apply to our lives today? How often are we adults following these classroom guidelines?

I’ve struggled with this imbalance for a long time. How do we have these 6 beautiful action statements for our children and then as adults, we have locked-in viewpoints? We don’t prize a sense of wonder. We see “us” and “them”. We make do and try to look “good, right and proper” at all times.

We have a term to describe living with inconsistent thoughts, beliefs and attitudes: cognitive dissonance. It’s rampant today, but it’s not hopeless. Yet. If it was inevitable, we wouldn’t see these posters from teachers and others going up on the walls and our Twitter feeds.

If we see value in these 6 statements of belief and action and if we truly believe in their worth, we need to adopt them fervently.

Educators are on board. The adults in the classrooms already see the benefit of operating under these notions. Some other individuals and organizations work under these premises everyday and many more are open to it. These folks need to jump in more. We need more visibility and advocacy. It’s the community populations, community leaders, corporation leaders, and national and international political & thought leaders who all need to affirm their buy-in and commit to framing our systems around these ideals.

In our world:

We respect each other.

We try our best.

We are a team.

We learn from our mistakes.

We create.

We celebrate each other’s success.

If they are empty words, these posters lose their value. We can just forget these notions and give our children guides that will at least be honest representations of the lives they can expect. They can see the hypocrisy anyway.

Personally, I side with the posters of things like In Our Classroom. We’re stronger #together.

Yearn, Embrace & Try

I wrote the above tweet on August 16, 2017, inspired by Barbara Gruener, the author of What's Under Your Cape?: Superheroes of the Character Kind. Her blog has amazing education and mindfulness resources, including links to her book. We traded books over the summer and has unofficially mentored me- of which I am very grateful.

The idea of working with “YET” in school is very common today. “I can’t do that kind of math” becomes “I can’t do that kind of math...yet!”, for example. In her blog, Barbara took the word and broke it down into powerful action words: Yearn. Embrace. Try. Those 3 words sparked a quick Twitter-friendly poem from me which I’ve now put into an image for today’s illustration.

I yearn.

I don’t know everything and I don’t know how to do everything. Let’s embrace that. It’s fairly easy to tell someone else that we’re all a work in progress. It becomes a bit harder to admit that we ourselves don’t have all the answers.

I can embrace.

Despite what I lack, I won’t run away and hide. This is another hard one to embrace. It’s so much easier to stick with what we know. Many of us grew up believing we have to be “the best” and to not run the risk of showing weakness by stretching ourselves. We need to be OK with nervous butterflies in our stomachs. The concept of “YET” feeds into that. It reminds us that we have both a right and responsibility to grow. I should embrace learning something new.

I can try.

If I put some effort into it, I may LEARN to be able to do that math. Or get closer to it. I have a duty to at least reach out and try. I should do it proudly, without fear. Why? To show ourselves and others that Fear shouldn’t run the show of our lives. That big mountain of impossibility called Fear can loom up in front of any and all of us, at any given moment. With practice and help from others, we can rise up against it and build something good.

We’re yearning, embracing and trying TOGETHER.

This concept is for us all. Whether it's hobbies, our health, our jobs, even using new technology- we may not be there YET, but we can yearn, embrace and try. Let’s remember that we’re all in YET together. We can move forward in YET, together. We can grow stronger in YET, together. YET covers it all: our minds, our hearts and our bodies. Together.

Where are we on the journey? What kinds of encouragement can we offer ourselves today? I’m thinking YET is a great place to start.