Education & Learning is Like Planting a Seed

Education is like planting a seed. The seed is the wealth of information you'd like to plant in your students' minds. As a teacher, it is your job to work with the student to make that seed grow. With enough sun (encouragement) and a little faith, that little seed will sprout and grow into a wealth of knowledge and opportunity. Once that plant has fully grown, you can sit back and enjoy the wonderful thing you've created.

Perhaps one of the topics we've covered this semester that has stuck with me the most was the article we read, Discovering Columbus. It was a very interesting topic that gave me a lot to think about. The question of, do you teach a curriculum that is a lie, even if that's how you learned it, and is technically how you are supposed to teach it? That gave me a lot to think about in regards to how I would teach students, and how we can start to incorporate the truth into the current curriculum. Another part of this semester I enjoyed was the discussion about culture. I learned that immersing into different cultures, accepting each students culture, and making it a point to be positive is a huge part of education and being a teacher. All people are different, we all have our different backgrounds and stories, and in being a teacher, you need to know that you're going to come across a lot of different people, and learning to incorporate different cultures is a big piece of what is takes to be successful in the classroom. And lastly, I loved the different types of education & schools we learned about. From schools based on creativity, to outdoor, environmentally friendly schools, it really opened my eyes to see the variety of different types of education available out there.

The blogs were a great way to get our ideas out, and give us a chance to discuss different topics. I also loved being given the opportunity to read and comment on others blogs, as I was able to see differing opinions, and points I may not have thought of on my own. That gives each of us an opportunity to learn even more by listening to what others in our positions have to say about a variety of topics.

Social Justice: Multicultural, anti-racist, projustice.

For my blog this week, after reading through this article, I decided to focus on social justice in terms of culture and race. The article discusses the 'Rethinking Columbus', but I wanted to look into the social justice when it comes to students in the modern school world. My question is: why hasn't the racial issues from our past completely subsided in our society?

The city of Seattle has a page dedicated to the issue of race and social justice in education. http://www.seattle.gov/rsji begins the page saying "Imagine a city where...every schoolchild, regardless of language and cultural differences receives a quality education and feels safe and included...race does not predict how much you earn or your chance of being homeless or going to prison...African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans can expect to live as long as white people" And according to the site, "The Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) is an effort of Seattle City government to realize the vision of racial equity."

There's also a site dedicated to this: https://www.raceforward.org/about. This organization is set up to "build awareness, solutions and leadership for racial justice by generating transformative ideas, information and experiences". And they define "racial justice" as "the systematic fair treatment of people of all races, resulting in equitable opportunities and outcomes for all". They also have a detailed description of what they do and how it's helping bring social justice in every area.


I think that this is extremely important. As said on the page, there's a still standing issue of children and students of a different race or culture feels unsafe and not included at school. Every child should feel safe at school, and every child should receive a quality education regardless of where they are from, how they look, or how they identify. It's good to know that many different organizations are looking to take a stand.

I also think that every city should have something similar in place to help with the social justice many people don't get.