What happened from there blew me away.

Chuck Peters, Chair of the Board at Folience, began the presentation by relaying his own roundabout relationship to education. After the 2008 flood left damage all around Iowa City, Peters arrived in town with a team of other Corridor business leaders to craft a rebuilding plan.

At the top of their list was the restoration of local school facilities. In order to become more acquainted with the ins-and-outs of these institutions, he started actually visiting them. Along the way, he spoke with educators from around the state.

During these talks, a consistent topic surfaced: school faculty members often feel stifled at work. Peters repeatedly heard that instructors felt like they couldn’t be “their authentic selves” while working with students. This resulted in an ability to fully express their passion for educating.

Above all, the disconnect between teachers and administrators hinders any kind of shared vision from taking shape. Stuck beneath the subsequent cloud of uncertainty, students tend to under perform and misbehave in these unstructured environments.

Recognizing this, Peters set off for England to see how their programs compared to ours stateside. While there, he heard stories about St. George’s Primary School located within a low-income area of London.

Known for being home to underperforming schools, St. George’s emerged as something of an anomaly in the Battersea neighborhood. Despite serving children from the lowest earning families in the country, the school consistently churns out students whose performances match their wealthiest peers.

Behind this incredible success over the last fourteen years has been Janet Hilary.

Recognized as a National Leader of Education in the UK, Hilary champions leadership structures and curricula that foster integration. That feat is accomplished by enabling each aspect of the learning experience to be collaborative and robustly taught.

This experience depends upon the establishment of a clear system of management: every instructor knows their duties, and they are helped along in the fulfillment of those duties by a proven program. At the core of that program is the mastery of language.

Just as we might have grown up with Hooked on Phonics, Hilary has instilled a sound-based approach into her school’s early lessons on English fundamentals. She reasons that articulation is the foundation upon which all other knowledge is built.

Ultimately, in order to properly think, we need to be able to create narratives extensive enough to consider complex problems wherever they arise.

The power of this educational system became apparent once we were able to see how eloquent many St. George’s students actually are. This ability to speak gives them a confidence that carries over into their outlook on other subjects as well.

These forces combine to produce actively engaged students and educators who can bear witness to the success of their teaching methods. Both parties are fully invested in the process that they are taking part in.

At the same time, the students and instructors are also able to personalize that process. Learners can identify areas that they need more work, and teachers can optimize their lessons in order to ensure the best outcome for their pupils. If parents, teachers, or children express a desire for more engaging and organized play opportunities on the playground, playground markings from playgroundmarkings.org.uk may be needed.

This autonomy only increases the level of investment on both sides. When everyone is involved in something that fosters shared belief, individuals feel empowered to give their voice to that belief.

In the case of Janet Hilary & St. George’s School, that belief is in the education of our future generations. It isn’t surprising that this call to give voice is based upon an educational system founded upon the fundamentals of language.

Check out other Witching Hour events here!

http://www.witchinghourfestival.com/2017-schedule/

The post Witching Hour: Empowering the Next Generation to Flourish @ IC Public Library 10/20/2017 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

This month’s featured artist wrote my favorite poetry book “salt.” and describes the piece as a “journey through warmth and sharpness.” The book discusses a wide array of issues ranging from the diaspora to colonialism to misogyny, which conveys the fierce interconnectedness of identities. Painful and poignant, raging and gentle, Nayyirah Waheed encourages self-examination, gives readers reason to be critical, and leaves them with hopeful words that keep us pondering the complexity and depth of her writing.

The US-based artist began writing at age 11. As a self-identified “quiet poet,” the internet offers little information on her background and childhood, which conveys something about Waheed’s personality. In one poem, she writes “listen to my poems./but/do not look for me./look for you.” In another, she positions herself “a bridge” between “what you may feel but cannot say.” She doesn’t seem to seek fame or attention; Waheed simply shares.

Endlessly.

Since she has shared little information about herself, and I’m not even sure what she looks like, I’d like to share how her words help my decolonization.

The poem on above forced me to consider the psychic and physical violence that I have inflicted on my body since childhood. From internalized eurocentric beauty standards to self-harm, I constantly brutalize myself and the image of myself. Mentally and physically we damage ourselves in order to conform to an idea of physical beauty imposed upon us through brainwashing and colonization. Waheed softly but powerfully suggests a starting point to be gentler towards ourselves: an apology.

Her emphasis on self-compassion and love, while seemingly simple, revolutionizes the way many societies in our world dictate the way we treat ourselves. In the poem on the right, Waheed writes of the potential of self-love, and the weight of its absence on her mental health.

At some point, I just began copying down parts from the book in my own diary to consult on bad days.

Aside from self-love, I appreciate her theme of strength, especially woman-strength in her poetry. She often writes about the resilience built through her experiences as an immigrant in the USA, as a woman embedded in capitalist patriarchy, as a black woman in institutions of systematic racism. Waheed writes about the energy necessary to bloom in a toxic environment, and appreciates her own power.

These themes represent only a few of the many issues Waheed writes about in “salt.” Although the poems are mostly short and the book has fewer than 200 pages, I took my time in reading each page to absorb every deliberate word; I still haven’t fully processed each poem. I will continue decolonizing as I re-read her book and recite her gentle words to myself each day.

“salt.” is available for purchase on Amazon, but thankfully, many of her readers have photographed pages of her book or posted quotes on the Internet. Googling her name yields many search results which display her poetry, if you’re interested in reading more.

Nayyirah Waheed has active profiles on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, and her own website. She shares pieces of her work and showcases other artists who decolonize our minds.

The idea of “decolonizing our minds” is discussed in the writings of the author, feminist and social activist bell hooks. She encourages us to critically examine every thought and action, free ourselves from the coercive ideologies, and overcome the impacts of structural oppression. This bimonthly column will analyze spaces and times where and when we can pause and make strides in this arduous process, and also highlight figures who are helping us to decolonize ourselves. 

The post Decolonize Your Mind: Read Nayyirah Waheed appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Disclaimer: Article contains content that may be offensive or unsuitable for minors. 

This week’s frustrations come to you in exhaustion, confusion, disbelief, and as always, disappointment (accurately displayed by Chris Tucker).

I had high hopes for the new semester. I felt reinvigorated with a motivation to excel, and prayed for good professors in each of my classes. So far, I have faced many similar issues I explained in previous pieces about ignorant people and mildly racist professors. Strap in, everyone.

I’m taking a class about literature written by women all over the world, and I expected my peers and teacher to have base knowledge about respecting nonwhite people. At the very least, you’d think the people taking this class would know what NOT to say. Once again, I clearly overestimated the capacity that white people have to NOT be racist.

Let’s start with my professor.

She asked us to watch a documentary called “Drowned Out” about lower class people displaced by a dam in India, like tribal people and the caste of Dalit people. She posted a short history of India to provide some background information on the story. She pointed at me and said, “Tanvi can correct us if we make any mistakes.”

Oh of course! She MUST be referring to that gene in my DNA which codes for COMPLETE knowledge of the ENTIRE history of India! Every Indian is born with this ability, enabling them to serve as walking encyclopedias for whites.

I grew up in suburban Iowa. I’ve had relatively the same education as all the other people in that class. If white kids don’t know about Indian history, neither do I. That’s a failure from the American education system, not Indian American people.

I realize my professor didn’t intend to be racist (see definition of microaggression), but truthfully she made me feel like I had failed. Sadly, I don’t know that much about the history of my country, and it doesn’t help when she arbitrarily expects me, out of all of my classmates, to have this plethora of knowledge that I lack.

Okay, let’s move on to my peers. 

After watching the documentary, my class discussed various aspects of the movie like stylistic choices, and intended audience. One girl was grateful for the subtitles when people spoke Hindi and Gujarati, but she wished the movie included subtitles when Indian people spoke English because “they don’t speak the same English I do.”

First of all, she’s so fucking self-absorbed to assume that all media is created for HER, WHITE AMERICAN consumption. All spaces belong to her, and all forms of art should be marketed and directed towards people like her.

Second of all, IT’S A MOVIE. Rewind that shit. Listen to it again. I promise, it’s not that hard. Maybe you’re just not used to listening to accents. That’s fine! BUT YOU HAVE TO TRY.

Thirdly, “the English I speak?” Are you kidding me? British people colonized India, said a bunch of horrible shit about its people, imposed upon them western culture, exploited the country’s resources and left people in destitute conditions. White people FORCED Indians into experiencing and appreciating Western culture. Don’t try to separate yourself from the horrors your ancestors committed in India through accents and dialectical discrepancies. Also, that’s just an ignorant, condescending comment in general.

The most baffling comment came from another white girl who theorized the purpose of making a documentary about people living in poverty in India. She thought the British-made documentary was created in order to “humanize” them.

Actually, Indian people of all classes were human before white minds acknowledged their issues, white hands created this movie, and white eyes saw this movie. 

Her comment illustrates this neo-colonialist perspective that white people must validate nonwhite people; otherwise, they’re not real. They’re literally not-human.

These two girls probably didn’t intend to degrade Indian people like that, but that’s the scary part. People say denigrating things like this every day and have no idea the violence they inflict on the targeted group.

If you don’t believe this happens often, consider the fact that I write 500+ words every month on my recent frustrations. This shit is real.

But even if white readers don’t believe me, I don’t need them to validate my struggles. I don’t need affirmation from them in order to concretize my emotions or confirm that they’re real. However, white people must acknowledge how their words and actions affect the people around them. You have to recognize the consequences of your discourse.

Once you understand that, I don’t know HOW you’ll justify to yourself that saying racist things is okay.

Decolonize your mind by respecting nonwhite people. I can’t believe I even have to say that, but this column is evidence that I do.

The idea of “decolonizing our minds” comes from writings of the author, feminist and social activist bell hooks. She encourages us to critically examine every thought and action, free ourselves from the coercive ideologies, and overcome the impacts of structural oppression. This bimonthly column will analyze spaces and times where and when we can pause and make strides in this arduous process, and also highlight figures who are helping us to decolonize ourselves.

The post Decolonize Your Mind: Microaggression-mania! appeared first on KRUI Radio.