Dreaming New Schools

Preface

Literacy of the Heart

Written by Angela, May 2009

On April 2, 2009, students and staff at Schenectady High School were informed of another student suicide. This was the fourth African American female student to take her life, during the 2008-2009 school year alone, adding to the school’s grim total of eight student suicides in less than four years. As difficult as the first three losses this year were to bear, somehow it was this fourth suicide that plunged our school community into a complete state of crisis and despair. Number four made it nearly impossible for us to trudge along carrying the heavy weight of loss, frustration and disparity on our shoulders. I don’t think many of us really understand the gravity of these events, even now.

I take this time to honor each individual in our community, and extend warm thoughts of hope and healing.

How can we have a positive, sustaining influence on our children individually and collectively? Two recent traumatic events compelled me to ask this question. The incidents had taken an enormous toll on me, on my students and on the larger community in which they live, work, play and learn.

In my many years teaching both inner city and suburban students, I have witnessed countless incidents, which have caused pain and suffering for many students. When a child feels devalued, unseen, unheard or powerless, they are at risk. I have great concern for the stories that our children learn through our actions and words as parents, teachers and leaders in the school community, especially pertaining to self-empowerment, self-worth and healthy opportunities for growth. We teach this by modeling behavior that supports growth intellectually, physically, emotionally through conscious evolution. I speak as a “teacher-leader” who understands the value of teaching through relationship and the freedom that those relationships bring to learning.

Even as I share our story, I am aware that I am just one instructor, working in one small community, connected to the global learning community in which we live. And our story, as painful as it may still seem to our community, is just a small part of that greater whole. We all share the human story of justice and injustice, freedom and enslavement, hope and disparity. What are these stories our children encounter to learn about themselves and the communities where they live? And how can we best help them to process, vocalize, and fully understand those experiences?

The second event, which pales in light of the aforementioned tragedy, brought up unresolved feelings of loss for me on a personal and professional level uniquely different from the loss of our students. The week after this news rocked us to the core, notification of the elimination our school’s Family & Consumer Science Department (H.S. FACS) was printed in the newspaper.

The Family and Consumer Science program offers students an opportunity to study interpersonal and intra-personal relationships within the life cycle of human development. It gives them a guide in acquiring the knowledge and ability necessary to create and maintain a safe environment in the home, workplace and community. The High School FACS program includes courses such as Early Childhood Studies, Human Development, Adolescent Psychology, Food and Nutrition and other elective courses that are relevant to the needs of all high school students. Children in Crisis is one such course, emphasizing intervention while examining contemporary issues children face - issues which may lead to those crises families and communities now face more frequently in our present day.

Students in my “Children in Crisis” class had spent the prior week processing, writing, sharing and prioritizing our approach for the student body as a whole. We covered the various levels and challenges on how we would enact our intervention project. The day before the break, students in the class were discussing the ramifications of eliminating the H.S. FACS program. They were concerned with completing their program of study and what the school would be like without courses that offered the freedom and flexibility to openly share parts of their personal life.

A student made a comment that the district should cut the Foods & Nutrition and Fashion portion of the program because, she felt, it wasn’t as important as the other classes on the chopping block. Another student disagreed, explaining that although those courses may not be important to her, they were important to other students who had a vested interest in those subjects. “ This decision-making process gets complicated”, she explained. “How can we determine what is of more value to someone else”? The students listened carefully to her explanation. It was obvious in that moment that they clearly understood another point of view. And from there, the students took action. And they saw themselves as agents of change.

Fatima stepped into her role as “teacher-leader,” organizing a petition and attending board meetings. Other students followed her lead, joining in to share their viewpoints at those meetings. I saw this as nothing less than remarkable; Fatima was born in Sudan and arrived in the U.S. at the age of 12. Now, as a senior, she was demonstrating what she had learned in just four short years -- intellectual, emotional, and social growth -- with grace, compassion and foresight. Fatima saw beyond her needs and advocated for the next generation of high school students at the end of her course of studies! This is what I call literacy of the heart. These actions hit the very core of what schools are supposed to be teaching children: Think globally, solve problems, and care for someone other than yourself.

On the most basic level, students need to feel safe and well cared for to grow and flourish -- personally, socially, physically and intellectually. We know that many children struggle with understanding self-care, self-love and feeling empowered. Growing into and changing their daily circumstances cannot happen without those aspects. I truly believe that these skill-sets are attainable, but the structure of our present school systems must become flexible enough to facilitate these changes. Through my years of teaching, I have learned that children who are raised in violence and poverty must physically see the value of sustaining hope and making change through learning if they are going to demonstrate those values in their own lives.

Human dignity, equality, and self-awareness become the cornerstones on which deeper levels of self-actualization such as self-worth; self-love, creativity and compassion for others can flourish. Students in my classes have demonstrated creativity and compassion in their choice to attend meetings, organize fund-raisers, and develop intervention projects to share with their peers.

Ultimately, we each have the unique opportunity to become “teacher-leaders.” In doing so, we can strive to create unity, inclusion and harmony in our relations. In doing so, we practice tolerance, objectivity, deep listening skills, nurturing and confidence in our own inner wisdom. As educators and leaders in global awareness, we can then model those attributes to our youth through our actions. Actions DO speak louder than words.

“ I’ve got a dream, that one day…”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.