CFS Jourals 11/9 and 11/16

11/9

Well, I'm glad I'm going to be getting back into the classroom, and through preparing this project I've felt a lot of nostalgia towards working directly with children. With the growth and clarification of my career aspirations, I have written myself out of the role of a classroom teacher, even though I had spent years molding myself into that shape. My problem is similar to many teachers who begin in the classroom who leave to enter the non-profit world, or the out-source education approach. The bureaucracy of the Public school classroom, especially with the urban demographics that may have higher non-dominant race percentages than suburban, has entirely failed teachers working towards social justice and innovative education approaches. I've turned my back on the public school classroom with the hopes to somehow infiltrate the policy making sector through non-profit and out-source option programs. I have a glistening hope that post-inauguration, reform will begin and initiatives to improve public education will launch: I hope to be a part of this initiative.

But what about now? What about before I graduate, before I enter the real world? I've been yearning to continue my work in education in one way or another lately. I would really love recommendations for education programs, especially non-profit programs and especially programs involved in targeting social justice and how racism fits into sustainability. Internships, summer jobs, anything that might fit the bill; it's hard to not to feel the pressure of the desperate need for hands and minds within the education system after having been a part of it for so long on both the teaching and the learning end.

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11/16

So it's finally the week of the project and I'm very excited. What each of us are going to be doing with the various classrooms is amazing. It is amazing that we are collectively taking back spaces: Taking back the space of the land to experience nature directly and to discover a healthy relationship with it; taking back the economic space through creating localized economies and self-sustaining communities; and taking back the space of the curriculum to value holistic learning that has existed as part of global communities for thousands and thousands of years before we standardized the concept of education.

We are all going to be doing something huge on Wednesday. We are taking back the public space which should always have belonged to the public and has been unlawfully taken away. We are collectively saying that this land really is ours, which means that it is all of ours, and that we all should have a say about how it is treated and how we are treated.

Even though our project is simple and small and fun and will only last for a meager forty minutes, our project is huge because of what it means. Beyond conveying an introduction to the concepts of food miles and food systems, we are providing children the stepping stool to liberate themselves from structures that do not give them the space they deserve.

I am greatly looking forward to joining Hannah and Pesha in the classroom on Wednesday and sharing such an incredible experience together. I am looking forward to reflections we will be able to have and the direction that we will all take our experiences after this semester is over.