My contribution to my final teach-in did not go the way I had planned. My idea was for the class to collaborate in interconnected ways. I thought we were going to leave feeling surprised at how much we could read each other through our observations of what was in the room. My idea was that we had spent so much time in a place that many of us may have not really explored. I was hoping we were going to find something that illuminated or complicated our experience in some way.

Engaging with difference also means engaging with different viewpoints, both in content and in approach. That was something that I grappled with and felt bettered by in this semester. Having both voices that I agreed with, and worked together to talk about common experiences with was valuable. So also was listening to and engaging with voices that I had trouble understanding, or had trouble interpreting in a way which was helpful and productive. As a teacher, as an academic, as a grown human, that is a useful skill. I tried, too, to engage with others even when my own words were not perfect, as part of their own process of dealing with and interpretinga alternate viewpoints that was practically an practical example of aspects of the class.  

When I began this class, I was convinced that the underlying problems of climate change, which seems overwhelming lied in our attachment to materialism, but I am now convinced the real roots of our eminent demise lie in disconnection or perception of disconnection.

What I found as my greatest challenge during the course, which presented itself in many forms and was addressed at different angles was answering the question, how can we, as educators, and pioneers of justice, create a space where ideas outside of white upper-class, male, Christians are considered vital to our understanding of ourselves and our surroundings? Also, how can I personally participate in confronting social justice from silence and giving others space to contribute.

            Also we complicated the idea of comfort many times. Who is comfortable? Who creates that comfortable space? Where is the boundary between growth and uneasiness versus pain and humiliation? I appreciated that everyone in the class was vulnerable enough to reside in one of these spaces. 

They call me a Purple Loosestrife flower. I am the most rampant invasive species in the United States, which I consider a compliment. I am originally from Great Britain, central Russia, northern India, Japan, Manchuria, China, southern Europe, and Southeast Asia. I envelop about 400,000 acres of federal land. Look at how strong and adaptable I am. My proliferation has caused the deterioration of temperate North American wetlands, pastures, marshes, and riparian meadows starting in the beginning of the nineteenth century. I spread through seeds and new roots that germinate from fragmented roots or stems. I have been listed as a deadly species by sixteen states.

            An elementary school that I will call “Silverleaf School” in Philadelphia started a bilingual education program for kindergarten students in the fall of 2014. The program is run on a 90/10 model where kindergarten students begin with 90 percent of their instruction in Spanish and 10 percent of their instruction in English. There are a mixture of native Spanish and native English speakers in the classroom. I worked in this school for three months, where I explored the benefits of learning a non-dominant language, how cultural knowledge is integrated into bilingual education, and issues of carrying out multilingual and multicultural education outside the classroom.

In the beginning of the semester, I remember looking at the course title and feeling compelled. I saw the word ‘multicultural’ and immediately and solely connecting it to race. I was ready for a space where we would tease out the complexities and nuances of race and its effect on the classroom. I had stories, issues, questions I was ready to address and found solace in all the people and institutions I was ready to implicate throughout the semester. My goal was to find answers in regards to my past experiences in the classroom as I searched for validation in my struggles with my opposing personal and academic senses of self.  I was looking for the ‘recipe’ for multicultural education that I would be able to recite when necessary.

During one of our last Schools in American Cities class, you (Jody) summed up so well what I had been sensing for a few weeks: the deeper we explored the issues within urban education, the further we seemed to come from answers. Before you put words to this, I had been unsure of what to make of the feeling: was I the only one who felt more confused leaving than I had coming into the class? No, this was the hallmark of a complex learning process, involving challenged assumptions, recognition of conflicting realities, discovery of unfair and antagonistic systems, and ultimately, an unclear but vaguely hopeful direction forward.