Yesterday I went into a classroom full of despair and doubt. Kids without options looked at me and sighed as another educator came with boring rhetoric and nothing to inspire passion within them. This will change starting today. Yesterday they looked dejected and depressed talking about food. Tomorrow I will challenge them to act out their creative energies around food, health, body image, and any other facets of health they can think of. (In such a brainstorming style they will uncover other personal health ideas they have.) Food is an inroad to encouraging these kids to intervene in the world as critical transformers as opposed to violent resistors. A great example of the redirection of angry motives are the innumerable city murals throughout the Philadelphia area. Point out the obviousness of their dissatisfaction with the system and make plain to them their assets.
As I debrief today with my supervisor, consult 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed' and 'Moving Beyond Icebreakers', and write this piece, I am reevaluating and strategizing a new approach to the kids. Infused with hands-on work, fun, physical movement, and critical theory, I will create a classroom culture (valuable customs) of dialogue, critical thinking, and action. Without these themes instilled into my lessons these kids are lost and I am lost with them. If I do not see them making strides to a more impassioned group, I will soon begin to reflect the same dejected mannerisms as they did.
The next step is identifying the ideal and taking action to find an implementation of that ideal... I think I have found a solution in my 'Reinvent your Food' activity.
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