Saturday, October 21, 2017

Being Positively Disruptive

As many readers may have noticed, I haven't spent much time in writing essays for this blog over the last three or four months.  You might also have guessed from this that I've been very, very busy.  While many people I know have been glued to their TV's, computers, and smartphones, addicted to the torrent of toxic drama, crazy-making and bad news being generated by a certain doofus with orange hair who now claims to be the President of the United States, I've been occupied with making some good news of my own.  Let me fill you in on the details.

First, the tutoring initiative in which I am involved, which I mentioned in this post and this one, is now expanding from one location to three. Our roster of teachers has both changed and grown.  I believe there are now thirteen of us, and more may be joining in the next few months.  While two of our groups are continuing to focus on basic mathematics, one group is developing a science curriculum aimed at teaching appropriate technology and self-sufficiency/sustainability in the context of developing alternative institutions.  That group is being led by a woman from an African-American/Asian background and a Native American woman, and they are writing a series of science experiments and activity packets aimed at youth from 10 to 20 years of age.  

And we have a fourth group composed of writers, who are developing and editing a math curriculum to be used by all of our groups, complete with workbooks and worksheets.  (As soon as I am done with this post, I will be working on addition and subtraction worksheets.  If idleness is the devil's workshop, I won't have to worry about getting into trouble for a long time!)

On another front, a group of us at work are planning to launch a campaign to collect donations for the Puerto Rican victims of Hurricane Irma.  I am thinking we will present the campaign as an opportunity to spend money for a good cause instead of spending money on holiday shopping.  We will also promote news sources that are providing accurate coverage of the situation in Puerto Rico, as opposed to many American news sources and the White House.  My goal is to provide a positive disruption in three ways:
  • By providing concrete relief to people whom our current regime would like to starve,
  • By shunting money away from the usual recipients in our consumer economy during this holiday season,
  • And by providing ongoing evidence that our current regime and its President are illegitimate.
There are a lot of people where I work.  Let's see where this takes us...

Lastly, it looks like I may have a few opportunities over the next couple of months to talk about resistance and related topics in front of a few audiences.  It looks like my part in the resistance being mounted by oppressed people is likely to get quite a bit larger.

1 comment:

Aimee said...

Years ago, I remember writing a comment on a post you wrote about public school and the minority child. I said, in response to your assertion that the public system did a huge disservice to minority children, that I believed in a communal system of education as vital to a communal society and that I thought it behooved us more to fight to improve the public education system rather than withdraw from it. I'd like to state here and now that you were right and I was wrong. I still have a weak spot for the ideal of a communal education system that honors and respects the educational needs of all children equally, but I now agree with you that that is a pipe-dream, and that parents of actual minority children who care about their education will better serve their descendants by doing it themselves. I have so much respect and admiration for the work you are doing - and for those who are doing it with you. Congratulations on creating a community of high quality educators. Salute!