ABOUT MY JOURNEY
After kindergarten school ceased to be fun. Classroom became fear-based, assessment-based and a competitive battle field. However, Caribbean classrooms can be organized into` spaces that produce disruptive thinkers and doers. The disruptive doers are who change the community for the better. The region and the world are desperately in need of heretical ideas and activities. I have always gotten into trouble during my academic and teaching career because the system rewards compliance. I did not fit in, do the standardized test, kept my head down or simply obeyed the given instructions. However, decades of schooling drills fear into the learner and the teacher alike. Then the constant drilling make us afraid of making a sound, using our voice or changing the way things are done. Often well intended teachers want to be outstanding but the system does not allow it. Creating positive change in classroom is daunting, and without enough time or support, it’s a tough endeavor.
Teaching to produce innovative work is time consuming. Currently time in classrooms is scarce as we are presently on a shift system. So learning is often substituted for consistent fear based drills in exchange for obedience. Teachers and school are essential. However, is this way producing what we need? Take a minute and think about your own experience in classroom. We need teachers to teach children to experiment, to believe in their potential. We need teacher who are rewarded for great work, their best work not the rubber stamping of strange and impossible policies and predictable work.
So I am at that place in the journey where I am interested not in just fitting in and teaching children to fit in, follow instructions, cram for the test and don’t fail.
I want to know how to use the classroom for community betterment in a real way.
No products in 11 years
After 11 years of teaching I realized I had not made any products creative or otherwise. Also, I shipped no products to the market. I was so focus on paying my student loan debt. I traded my compliance for survival. The debt is paid now. Thus, I noticed I have had over 30yrs of unbroken service in the education system from three years to today and I have something to say.
I love education. I don’t enjoy working in the system as is.
Therefore, I am curious about how the education system in the Caribbean started, how it evolved and how it has not changed over the decades. I care enough about education to create a change even if it is just a lil bit.
This, site is one of the first things I created. It is a home for discussion were we can Edu-create. Edu-create is about creating and educating as we engage the space and people in global classroom. This space is an open classroom for the world to contribute as we learn and change learning from informed positions one classroom at a time. Can we be taught to create change, new ideas, new products and to challenge systems that are no longer serving the common good?.
