Friday, November 19, 2010

The Inevitability of Personal Motives

The Cooking Club at my North Philadelphia site is soon to be up and running. I am looking ahead to a new group of students to engage and push into leadership positions as wellness creators. The hope is for students to see this as an opportunity to acquire real-life skills and a passion for caring for their bodies as there are real consequences to not treating it as an investment. Through a cooking club designed to have them enacting and enforcing changes upon the group, and possible future ventures through the group, we can impart a philosophy of empowerment to energize students.


Farther north, I have an upcoming Parent workshop to conduct on healthy snacks where I'll be facilitating dialogue around affordable, convenient, healthy snacks for kids. I imagine providing Path Mark circulars to demonstrate the common affordable items comparing those to the typical snack food from the corner store and then detailing the national childhood health statistics. Generating a conversation about "usual" snacks with local and relevent evidence should push the adults to think about their capacity to provide healthy snacks and their motives to do so.


As the programming expands and I'm beginning conversations with more diverse groups I'll need to focus my energies on a pedagogy incorporating as many voices as possible and the greatest depth of honesty as possible. Inevitably all that I share (inside the classroom and out) will result in personal interpretation and motivation, thus the greatest level of honesty will bear the closest semblance of actual motivation from participants. Thus, how do I encourage an environment of honesty in a group of students not accustom to honest dialogue?

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