How do we unleash the untapped Genius of our most vulnerable and underserved students? This is the most poignant question of our time right now in the storm of a global pandemic, dire labor shortages in critical and high demand fields and ever more pressing global issues that will demand more of us and our humanity. Right now, we cannot waste anymore Genius. But sadly, over 40% of college students drop out and 89% of low-income and 1st generation students drop out before attaining a degree, there are one in three Black men in prison, Black unemployment is 2 times the national average, and the average net worth of a Black family in 6.7 times lower than their much wealthier counterparts. Looking at all of this, teachers certainly have our work cut out for us so we do not waste anymore of our precious Genius children. But the truth is no matter what we do, we can not teach our way out of this alone. We need an entire village surrounding us to unleash the untapped Genius of our most vulnerable and underserved students. As the world rapidly changes around us, educators will need to be more agile and adaptable to meet the ever changing needs of our students and the new world that we are preparing them for. What’s more, with the push for more personalized and self-directed learning, teachers must curate dynamic learning experiences that not only differentiate students' learning needs, but engage them to be critical thinkers to solve real-world problems that don’t always have clear answers. So we will desperately need a whole village around us if we want to do all of this well because we can't do it alone. Let me give you an example. An essential question in one of my classes is “ How can we create and share disruptive art that makes an impact in a social justice movement?”. Right now, I don’t know the answer to this question. But I do know it will take many shapes and forms for each student to arrive at their own answer using their own unique modality and tools to get there. I mean there are so many unknowns at the outset and let’s not forget, I am not an Artist, I am an English educator. So this required me to reach out to a community of Artists, disrupters and leaders who could guide us along this journey (me included). I also am working with SCAD’s College Faculty to curate creative art workshops so students will learn from diverse artists in their own community. Apparently, they do this with local schools for free to expose students to their college. Still working on this so I will let you know what happens with all this and what we create together. Right now, I don’t know what will happen next and I like it that way. I know some teachers may feel a little uncomfortable with not knowing the outcome or all of the details of what happens next. I know we are taught to always know the answers with our answer sheet, but real life does not have an answer sheet and for us to unlock all students' Genius, then we must wade in the waters of discomfort more in this season. Again, I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But I do know how to curate the right community partners who can help students find their own messy answers. As I shared before, we can’t out teach the challenges that await us, especially when we are staring down the barrel of generational poverty and systemic racism. We must call in all the troops if we expect to win this war and ask messier questions that are akin more to our daily lives than the theories in our books. This is how we begin the hard work of unleashing the Genius of so many young people that have historically been pushed aside and made to feel invisible. We radically activate the village that it takes to not only raise a child, but more importantly unleash their courageous Genius that was always there in the first place. If you want to join our village of educators, please join us on Wednesday, October 6, 2021 at 6:00pm for a virtual chat (Register HERE) about how we build the village we need to unleash our future Genius.
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AuthorEducator, student advocate and community activists. Archives
October 2021
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