Thoughts Shared at Educational Forum

I attended an educational forum today at the Peace Center and Gallery on Adams Street in Detroit. The gallery is presenting the photographs taken by Frank Hammer and his daughter Melina. The exhibit includes photos from Cuba and the Detroit Public School Warehouse. The photos are gorgeous, yet disheartening at the same time. They portray images of wasted resources of school supplies that lay wasted in an abandon building. The session began with a video clip created by Oren Goldenberg, of poet Will Copeland. Freedom Schooling, Copeland's poem, focused on current trends in DPS, including:

Passive listening; mechanical tested; prison resemblance; complexity of communication

He stated that in order for change we need to get ALL stakeholders involved; Design curriculum around the needs of today; CHANGE CURRICULUM; wide populations of students attending DPS and need to address all of their needs; and create a curriculum developed by reality.

Sophia Holly-Ellis was the main speaker for the event. She is a retired DPS school teacher with 56 years of service to the city's children. Sophia told stories of how she use to beg for books, but with no success, she just started having the kids write their own. “You notice I keep saying WE…We built all of our own equipment. We built everything in the classroom, and this was in elementary," she stated. "I never had idiots in my classroom. I had kids full of curiosity." Sophia was very inspiring to listen to, and I could tell that she loved teaching and had a passion for life and the well being of others.

The discussion panel consisted of four educators: Malik Yakini, Julia Pointer, Nate Walker, and Lottie Spady.

Malik Yakini is the Director of the Nsoroma Institute Public Academy and activist for the Community Food Security Network in Detroit. Yakini stated, that we need to start teaching kids that "we are the creators of our own reality," and that we as educators need to start nurturing the children into becoming "entire" human beings. Nsoroma is a charter school, but he states that this type of nurturing needs to be taking place in after-school programs, churches, home schools, and public schools. (It was also pretty cool to see him, because I used a quote of his in one of my papers last week! Pretty neat!)

Julia Pointer is a teacher at University Prep. One of the most impactful statements of the discussion was made by Julia, "we have created a generation of consumers," and we need to "build schools around training creators." I really enjoyed her thoughts on how we as educators create a path and explain to children that this is the path to follow in order to be successful: K, elementary school, high school, college, job, car, family, and then house, and by following THAT path, you will be successful. I don't believe she was saying that that particular path can't lead to success, but it may not be the path for everyone. By teaching students to "create" their own path, and instilling in them that THEY must CREATE what they want to be provides them a tool to create their own life and not have to rely on someone doing it for them.

After 5yrs of teaching and being laid off, and teaching and being laid off, and teaching and being laid off by DPS, Nate Walker has landed a job as a teacher at University Prep. Nate suggests that there is this belief that by providing schools with equitable funding all problems will be solved and BAM...students in Detroit will be "learning." He believes that before there can be equitable education in the city we need to address 5 specific questions:

1. What is the goal of education?
2. What does it mean to improve the quality of life?
3. What role does education play in transforming a community? It's spaces? It's interaction?
4. How can education deepen humanity?
5. What is high quality integrated education?

Lottie Spady is an environmental educator for East Michigan Environmental Action Council.Lottie displayed a passion for her educational work and expressed that "we must tell our own stories, and not wait for 60 Minutes" to roll up and say "hey, you're doing great things, so we're going to record you." The technology, equipment, people, and tools are available to begin creating and sharing our own stories, so let's not wait for someone else to do it for us. She spoke of an after-school program where she allows the kids to create their own webpages. They can choose from any topic in which they have an interest in...BUT, for example, if they choose SNEAKERS (gosh, this takes me back to working with my middle-school kiddos) then they have to do research and include information about sweatshops, marketing, consumers, etc.

I wasn't surprised at the end of the forum to find out that all of these individuals are working together for the betterment of the Detroit children in which they serve. They all showed excellent examples and enthusiasm for making a difference in Detroit. A thought though that is still laying heavy on my mind is "why weren't any current DPS educators on the panel?" Not that this next statement takes anything away from the work of those listed above, but they are all from charter schools. What about the Detroit Public Schools? As I learned from watching Born Into Brothels, it's hard sometimes for children of poverty and with certain mental and physical problems to get accepted into a charter school. What does the future hold for Detroit PUBLIC School students? Are there panels and forums taking place like this for those students? I know Julia and Nate are working on creating a school, but I didn't catch the name of it, so if anyone reading this is familiar please let me know. (If I find out...I'll be sure to share.)