Pedigocial Concerns

Today I was covering an ESL class for a co-counselor who had the day off. It was American History Day, I was given instructions to break the class into pairs and give each pair a different historical event to research and then teach the class about. I did that and then decided to share a historical event myself, so I showed my class the 'I Have a Dream' speech, and prefaced it by saying MLK was pivotal in the Civil Rights Movement and that he lead many of the demonstrations that led to equal rights.

While we were watching the speech I became extremely upset with myself and AmVil in general. I have spent the past year and a half studying social justice and working with kids that are effectly negatively daily due to racial injustice, and the only thing I had to say about it was the MLK created racial equality. Beyond that, each day at AmVil is themed, each theme perpetuates many of the stereotypes minorities have battled years if not decades to eliminate. The kids I work with are 15-18 years old and we feed them the same ignorant bullshit people learn from cowboy and indians & mobster movies.

While I recognize the language difference, and could argue a disadvantage when attempting to discuss current racial hardship in American, I still think it is worth the effort and possibility of difficult communication. I realized today, that while it may be within AmVils Pedigogy to teach various aspects of American culture through the use of inaccurate stereotypes, my personal pedigogy disagrees. Since being at camp I have not been challenged, often due to lack of diversity, to continue to think about the different social structures that are set up in my favor and put those of lower economic status or darker skin through greater obstacles. I miss working for PL, having conversations with young people about the difficulities they face and what they are willing to do to change them. And more than ever, I'm excited for HECUA in the fall. It's exactly what I need!