Wherein a personal battle plan emerges
Nov. 15th, 2016 12:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
la_rainetteThe past week has been extremely rough, for personal reasons but also, obviously, because I am affected by the results of the US elections. This is complicated by the fact that I don’t live in the US, so I feel anxious for my friends over there, but I also feel helpless and useless and I don’t know what to do. And I don’t dare express it openly because people look at me funny - like I am borrowing someone else’s anxiety.
It all boils down to this: I need to do something real, I can’t just be a bystander to this train wreck. So I considered volunteering, but let’s be real, I have a family and a very demanding job. Oh wait.
I have the best job, at the best possible place.
I often joke that my school is a lot more diverse now than it used to be - 8 years ago, when I first started working there, 90% of our kids were African-Canadian, with a good 85% originating from Congo. Lingala was as commonly spoken in the schoolyard as French or English. (I learned a few Bad Words in Lingala at the time, I am sad that I’ve forgotten most of them.) This year, only half the kids in my class are of African-Canadian descent.
I have always tried to give every child in my class his and her exact share of time and attention, as best as I can. In the light of what I have seen, heard and read recently, both in the US and in Canada, I have decided that in the next few years I am going to focus more attention on my African-Canadian kids.
I have very high hopes for Little B. She is opinionated, determined, bossy and quite, quite impossible to manage. This year, I intend to stop trying to teach her that she can’t boss everyone else; I am going to teach her the empathy and the social graces she needs to be a good leader instead. Because the world needs more strong, opinionated, feisty black women.
I am going to grab J by the hand and effing SHOW HIM all the great things he could do if only he decided to invest the effort to do them right (instead of getting rid of them as fast as possible in a half-assed way), because I am not letting this little boy throw away his potential. I’m going to believe in him and push him until he trusts his his own abilities enough that he’ll never let anyone else tell him different.
I’ll see about the rest later, but for now I have a plan.
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2gbNPBK
via IFTTT
It all boils down to this: I need to do something real, I can’t just be a bystander to this train wreck. So I considered volunteering, but let’s be real, I have a family and a very demanding job. Oh wait.
I have the best job, at the best possible place.
I often joke that my school is a lot more diverse now than it used to be - 8 years ago, when I first started working there, 90% of our kids were African-Canadian, with a good 85% originating from Congo. Lingala was as commonly spoken in the schoolyard as French or English. (I learned a few Bad Words in Lingala at the time, I am sad that I’ve forgotten most of them.) This year, only half the kids in my class are of African-Canadian descent.
I have always tried to give every child in my class his and her exact share of time and attention, as best as I can. In the light of what I have seen, heard and read recently, both in the US and in Canada, I have decided that in the next few years I am going to focus more attention on my African-Canadian kids.
I have very high hopes for Little B. She is opinionated, determined, bossy and quite, quite impossible to manage. This year, I intend to stop trying to teach her that she can’t boss everyone else; I am going to teach her the empathy and the social graces she needs to be a good leader instead. Because the world needs more strong, opinionated, feisty black women.
I am going to grab J by the hand and effing SHOW HIM all the great things he could do if only he decided to invest the effort to do them right (instead of getting rid of them as fast as possible in a half-assed way), because I am not letting this little boy throw away his potential. I’m going to believe in him and push him until he trusts his his own abilities enough that he’ll never let anyone else tell him different.
I’ll see about the rest later, but for now I have a plan.
from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2gbNPBK
via IFTTT
no subject
Date: 2016-11-15 12:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-15 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-15 01:36 pm (UTC)-J
no subject
Date: 2016-11-15 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-11-15 04:15 pm (UTC)I mean, Americans who talk like the whole world is made up of the U.S. are annoying but the phenomenon is somehow still understandable, but Canadians who do that are suuuuuper-angrymaking (and to be clear, you are far from the only one).
-J
no subject
Date: 2016-11-15 06:41 pm (UTC)I am actually very aware that tumblr isn't particularly good for me, TBH.
no subject
Date: 2016-11-15 08:26 pm (UTC)-J