Pulling Yourself Up by Your Bootstraps with Broken Boots
As I sit down to write this blog post, and as I have a moment to reflect on this past week, I feel a physical heaviness wrapped up in frustration, exhaustion, and sadness. I’ve had a lot of hard conversations this week — conversations about racial discrimination and reconciliation, what to DO, and not just say. And as the writer of this blog post, CEO of this company, and woman of color, it would be remiss of me not to write about the important role education plays in the narrative of systemic racism. If you know anything about our company, we deeply desire to fight broken systems and effectively close the opportunity gap.
Please know, I am writing from my own experiences. This blog post is a commentary on what I’ve noticed in my own life, as well as literature I’ve read that has personally helped me understand how to be a better educator to students of varying backgrounds and experiences.
I remember my first week in college. It was the first time I was on my own and outside of the carefully crafted protected environment I was raised in. Though it was a fine bubble, the narrative I learned growing up is that you can “pull yourself up from your bootstraps.” That was true for my grandmothers; two brown women who left their home countries, knew no one, started businesses with little to their name, and created a completely different life for their children and grandchildren, all with less than a 3rd grade education. They adapted, they survived, and they created opportunities by enduring hardships I only now hear about in stories. But going to college, I realized that “pulling yourself up from your bootstraps” wasn’t everyone’s story — it couldn’t be everyone’s story. I learned that implicit bias, systemic racism, and cyclical poverty, made the “pulling yourself up from your bootstraps” mentality a farce. The political and socioeconomic systems in place today (including, but not limited to gerrymandering, voter registration purges, mass incarceration of minorities, and lack of educational opportunities) are still designed to favor the majority population. Better understanding that reality, better understanding the true power my grandmothers wield in order to break barriers, made me want to learn more.
In order to learn more, I began listening to more diverse speakers and reading more books. I ensured that those who I spent time with reflected this pursuit of increasing my proximity, empathy, and understanding of differing perspectives. Lisa Delpit’s words encapsulate my desire to become learned from others’ experiences, especially in the context of teaching minority students. She says in her book, Other People’s Children, “I believe in a diversity of style, and I believe the world will be diminished if cultural diversity is ever obliterated.”
I deeply wanted to learn more about how to create equal opportunities for individuals in the context of education. I even changed my major. The formative experiences I had the first couple weeks of college sparked my personal passion to fight for justice and diminish social inequities. And in those moments, the heart of Ardiendo Learning was born. Here, we want to help all students, regardless of circumstance, find their own passions and grow as critical thinkers equipped with skills to pursue their dreams.
As I mentioned, reading played a critical role in increasing my proximity and finding practical ways to fight injustice.
Other People’s Children by Lisa Delpit. This is actually a recent add to my list. It’s insight on how students of color might need a varied pedagogical style than their majority counterparts has helped me better develop learning strategies with my own students.
The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore. This first-hand account of two men with the same name gives clarity on how life circumstances can shift one’s trajectory, as well as the role systemic racism plays in their lives. It showed me the importance educators have in supporting minority students well and effectively.
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. This book was one of the first I read about prison reform and the tragedy of minorities being disproportionately sentenced to death row without just legal recourse. It navigates the tension between justice and mercy in the way we act, and implores us to make ourselves proximate to issues of social injustice in order to increase our compassion and incite change.
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. This was the next book I read about mass incarceration in the United States and the arguments made in this book have not influenced my pedagogy directly, but rather, my proximity to the issues of prison reform.
These are just a few at the top of my reading list. If you have any that have personally helped you grow, feel free to share them! We hope to learn more, grow, and close the opportunity gap in Orlando and nationwide together.