i'm into my second semester teaching for the East Bay Aspiring Young Scientists program through UC Berkeley. i'm working at two school sites, one in east oakland, the other more intensive work at santa fe in west oakland.
my first session with the 5th grade class at sante fe was disas-tuh-russ. we had to have three interventions by a school administrator. one student i worked with became defeated by the chaos around him in the classroom. they were loud, rowdy, and blatantly arrogant.
at the end of class as they lined up at the door i asked them what holiday we celebrate monday (dr. king's bday) what important historical occurrence happens the following tuesday (our first black president is sworn in). i told them these men and this time are important in our history as a people and given their horrendous behavior i was ashamed of them. they went silent and were dismissed.
i meditated on that class the past few days; how can i reach them? how i can express to them
emphatically that if they don't get their shit together they are doomed? so i sat down to work out some aggressive personal development tools and organize my thoughts.
i hear myself say: 'something has been taken from you and i'm going to help you take it back. you will not make it if you do not get your mind and soul right, right now. this attitude you carry will lead you into incarceration and hardship in your young life. '
step 1. introduce the eight student principles (a guidance model developed by george washington carver)
1. Be clean both inside and out.
2. Neither look up to the rich or down on the poor.
3. Lose, if need be, without squealing.
4.Win without bragging.
5. Always be considerate of women, children and older people.
6. Be too brave not to lie.
7. Be too generous not to cheat.
8. Take your share of the world and let others take theirs.
i'm going to instruct each student to place this in a prominent place in their homes that they see daily. they will be put to task to exercise these principles into their daily lives and share with the class how they applied these principles.
step 2. introduce the seven principles (used in the foundation of the black panther school program)
Umoja (Unity)
To strive for and maintain Unity in the Community, Family, and Race.
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)
To build and maintain our community together and to make our brother’s and sister’s problems our problems and to solve them together.
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
To build and maintain our own stores and to profit from them together.
Nia (Purpose)
To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (Creativity)
To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (Faith)
To believe in our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
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