6/12 Canaries, troublemakers, and white supremacy OH MY

 

1) In the book Troublemakers, Shallaby is emphasizing over and over again the importance of the kids who schools have branded as the delinquents, the disruptors. They act as a litmus test for our education system and whether or not it is thriving. "Our school are designed to prepare children to take their assigned place in the social order rather than to question and challenge that order. Because we train youth in the image of capitalism instead of a vision of freedom-for lives as individual workers rather than solitary human beings...". This was a super strong quote, and deeply resonated with what I have witnessed in the school system in the year I have spent there. 

2) "With these youngest of people, the desire for self directed learning is fierce. They move and run and jump and skip, they do not sit still for long stretches...."As they author speaks on babies and toddlers in this quotation, I can't help but think of how some school are moving to more alternative ways of teaching. I have a friend who is currently teaching at a nature school in TN. The school is public and there are a myriad of children that attend this school who remind me so much of the labled "defiant" kids in the article. They have room and space to grow and flex and challenge, while also getting some of what they so badly need...time outside, time to be kids, which miraculously helps regulate their nervous systems. I wish every school could function like this. Obviously there are still many issues to be overcome but I love that adding more time in nature assists kids in their quest for freedom in learning. 

3) "Thus, the withholding of education is a political tool used to maintain and ensure an economic and social underclass." The author goes on to describe how it was illegal during slavery to teach Black people to read, thus preventing them from accessing the power of writing or organizing. It is devastating after reading all the DEI decrees made by Trump to think about this quote and think of all the compounding factors that we have to work against when it comes to making education equitable and accessible for all people, particularly those without privilege. I was frustrated a lot while reading this article because I found myself excusing some of the educators in my school behaviors because the kids act in such a way that is sometimes dangerous to one another and so disruptive that they have no other choice but to separate them from the class. I had to keep reminding myself that the students I was thinking of have been raised in this system and experienced compounded years of the detriments of Western education. No kid wants to be the bad kid. That is Shallaby's argument, and it means that we have failed and it is our job to figure out why and how to fix it.