Ecological Contact Zones, or Contact Zones of Ecology

I think this class was just what I needed, right when I needed it. I have to say though, I do think I lucked out with this ESEM based on the moans and groans of some of my other first-year peers. At the start of the course I was unsure about things, especially about Anne. The only educator in my life who’s ever made me feel so capable has been my mother. Even in English courses in high school, I always performed well, and my teachers took note of that, but the relationships formed, however pleasant, weren’t challenging. Thank you, Anne.

“Language and reality are dynamically intertwined. The understanding attained by critical reading of a text implies perceiving the relationship between text and context.”

-Paolo Freire, “The Importance of the Act of Reading”

Our reality contains an ever rising feeling of insurmountable death and terror. The recent bombings, including those in Paris, Beirut, and Mali, are just part of that. There are hundreds of mass shootings every year in the United States, and every day’s news brings stories of hate crimes in violence and exclusion.

The End of Outside: Reconciling Connection

Aayzah Mirza 

Revision Paper 

December 18, 2015 

The inception of this semester brought with it apprehension, anxiety and a feeling of being lost. Had I made the right decision? Would I fit in? Would I live up to the expectations my friends and family had of me?

Unpacking the Educator/Therapist Dichotomy 

Book group yesterday felt discombobulating, frustrating, and important. I found myself torn between my frustration that we weren't completing the lesson plan as effectively as we had hoped, and my strong desire to give the emotions in the room the space they deserved. 

New York State Agrees to Overhaul Solitary Confinement in Prisons - The New York Times
https://apple.news/AiQMB1Z5xTX6DNCzPmvMDyA

I came into my final meeting with three full pages of notes. It started off as an effort to gather my thoughts and use keywords to spark ideas that I had already ruminated on, but then ended up being extremely detailed and stream-of-consciousness. When I finished, Anne quipped, “Did you even draw breath?”

Somehow this will relate to our recent topics of discussion; somehow I will find the secret and screaming connective tissue which binds all of it. Isn't that at the very center of things in this course? Reconciling with the dreaded, complicated messiness of living connectedly.