The director of the Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High in San Diego (California) closes the Àgora Educació cycle organized by the University of Vic in Manresa
The project based learning It is the educational methodology that breaks down the barriers of compartmentalized learning to promote the skills of students. One of its strong promoters is the African-American Kaleb Rashad, at the helm of the High Tech High schools and the Center for Love and Justice in San Diego (California). He is convinced that every child has inherent dignity, worth and genius. Loha explained this Saturday at the end of the dialogues Agora Education 2022 organized by UManresa and the University of Vic.
Where is the key to good education?The reality is that the children of the rich, unlike the poor, have more opportunities to satisfy their curiosities and interests. For a fair and egalitarian education, all children must be treated as if they had brilliant ideas, as if intelligence were equally distributed in all of them.There are those who will not see it that way.It is the way to support curiosity and encourage wonder, risk taking and agency building. Making them feel that their ideas matter and that they can contribute to the world is something that is sorely lacking in many schools.
“Creation is within all of us. It is the horse that pulls the chariot of reflection”
It is not easy to decolonize prejudices.In adults, the first thing is to realize who is in and who is out of the system, and why. Only later comes the challenge to the status quo and imagining new principles. In the case of children, however, I would start with something that comes naturally to them: creating things. Creation is within all of us. It is the horse that pulls the cart of reflection on oneself and on relationships.An example, if you’d be so kind.A group of girls from our school designed a weather balloon with an atmospheric data collection device that they shared with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). They shot a video of the launch, writing about the balloon as a metaphor for the fragility of being a young woman (“given the right conditions, she too could rise,” one noted). That is the transformative nature of education!
“You can use theater, dance, music or football to help young people understand the world”
Spain is the second country in the EU with the highest school dropout rate. Children can go through years of education without anyone recognizing their talent, without knowing what they are capable of. At Saint Paul High School in Minnesota, for example, they noticed expelled students rapping on street corners. “Why don’t you do it inside?” they were told. They were interested in the poetry of lyrics, in the music business, in the ancestral roots of the performers. You can use theater, dance, soccer to help them understand the world. But schools are not designed to understand what those unique talents are.Perhaps it is a requirement that teachers cannot assume.Teachers need community and educational leaders who create the conditions for them to be willing to do something creative. Once you get involved in this type of work, it’s hard to go back to the box.
“The main thing is to create the conditions for human flourishing, for its self-determination”
So, creativity is at the center?It is a vehicle. The main thing is to create the conditions for human flourishing, for its self-determination. Wake up to the purpose of life, whatever it may be, and not submit to those kinds of superficial hierarchies that are based on the money you earn or the status you can achieve.It is curious, the sociologist Richard Sennett sees in project-based education the formative strategy of late capitalism.The usual criticism is that children do not learn enough, which is not true. It is true that some cultures focus on the individual and others revolve around ‘us’. I have the word ‘ubuntu’ tattooed on my right arm, an African ethical rule that means that one is only in relation to the others.
“‘Uniting’ people is not ‘assimilating’. We are the expression of our ancestors”
In the best of cases, work is done to ‘integrate’ the immigrant. What do you think?‘Uniting’ people is not ‘assimilating’. We are the expression of our ancestors. Nobody can make us forget. It’s about how you build the mosaic.Is that where the ‘love’ of the one who makes the flag comes in?Yes. But love has to start with yourself, with compassion for you. I was born in the 70’s and was given the name Robert Lee Minter Junior. He had been a Marine and at the age of 24, in my second university year, in one of those typical philosophical conversations, I asked myself for my name, the same one that they gave to my father. It was heartbreaking to learn that he was wearing the name of Confederate General Robert Lee, who opposed the abolition of slavery.The beginning of its flowering?From love, yes. I investigated and connected with the ontology and ethics that had separated me. I began to be Kaleb Rashad and claim the wisdom of my ancestors. It is about connecting with oneself and with the world, helping emancipation. That is what my educational proposal consists of.