Oprah's New Earth Discussions

I have been following Oprah and Eckhart "A New Earth" webcasts and its subsequent discussions.
This thread of discussions is very poignant to our group:

http://www.oprah.com/community/thread/74080?tstart=15

Self Evaluation Of '"TheCurriculum" facilitation -V-

These are just my [Vardhini] after thoughts:

Wow every day is a new learning experience. I was very proud of myself on my pace for not speaking too fast. I felt I held the class interest well. Of course there are always things to improve upon, and I am game for that, learning never stops, and I consider myself to be a humble person, and do not wish to come across as over powering.

Sally and I decided that she will start the session, and since I wanted to challenge myself to lead discussion questions because I needed to practice in the safe environment to see how I can improve in that area to have it be a student led discussion and give time for them to answer. I know I need to come to terms with being OK with silence!

Even though I did go softer in my voice! I guess this is not an excuse but then again Sally has such a gentle and soft spoken demure, that the contrast made my facilitation even more drowning.

I have decided to do more listening and also work on my tone of voice. I know I need to match my actions with my good intentions, so here is my check list for myself:
- take turns, -rehearse well with the partner,
-knowing the material well, but knowing the audience is as important.
-be neutral and address the group rather than the individual depending on the audience.
- Ah ha down size my battery! I need my partner's help too for this one.

And then again every session will be different, because the audience will guide the candor and behavior of the ball in play. I know I will do my best to handle such a situation in a professional manner. I felt since I am a spontaneous person it was easier to apply teaching techniques using what we learned in class on the spot.

And for me it was harder to strictly follow the curriculum because I was too worried about missing the rules and steps. This can be overcome by practice and studying and practicing the curriculum a couple of times earlier.

Vardhini's reflection of Whitewash

I thought the movie was intense. But definitely as adults we process information differently. Children are very resilient and take absorb information and process the information very differently.

Personally I felt it to be more empowering and the message of empathy comes across well. Usually most human beings no matter what age, we look at any information and focus on what is more close and relevant to us. Example if a group of people are given a photograph of themselves, the first thing they look for is themselves!

So children--> focus on the teacher, the children, and associate the situation to their going to school etc, and probably will be less focussed on the media aspect of the movie except that it is kind of fun to be on TV.
they are more empathetic to what happens to Helena, and totally get it, and know and feel " that is not nice"; "that is mean" etc, they are much stronger and would much rather prefer the facts given to them just like it was in the movies.

As Adults we focus on more on what all the adults are doing in the movie, their actions and why etc, and get into too much of the details of all aspects, and this could hinder us from the face value of the main message. Which was that it was a hate crime, and the good people in power can contribute to social change.

I am sure we the Diversity council team can do a great job in the accurate facilitation of the after video watch.
It is sad that that was a real happening, and more disheartening is that it is still happening at different levels. I know just like in the movie we can overcome any thing with our support network ! People by nature are good hearted.

Whitewash reflection

While I think “Whitewash” is a controversial video, I don’t think it is something that is out of the range of a middle school class. I think even children as young as 6th grade are beginning to understand the power of race. Certainly, one of the first matters of importance is going to be having facilitators that feel comfortable with the material and the questions that may arise as a result. With those things in place, I have no more reservations about this presentation than I do about any others the Diversity Council has to offer. After all, we are hear to bring about change through thought, and sometimes it takes a slightly more jarring image to provoke that thought.
I think beyond the simple message of individualized racism and even the sub-story of the power of institutional racism, there was an even more powerful message of blackness and whiteness that many in the African American community must be inundated with every day. It was the unspoken idea of the value of being white and the worthlessness of being black. Of course it was made obvious by the gang that being white was the better choice, but I think it also was a subtle message in the way the media portrayed the situation and how the young lady reacted. At one point, there was a paper headline that that stated “White for a day”. This very well could have been a bit of overkill in emphasizing the insensitivity of media, but it brings home the point nonetheless. As do several of the reports that refuse to insist that it is a hate crime, and rather feel comfortable in speculating in a long list of what they assume are reasons for crime in a poverty-stricken area such as this.

The other aspect of this, as mentioned, is the inner turmoil I see in the main character. I see her struggling with the feeling of “how could they do this to me?” for the most part. But I also do think that she has an even greater struggle with self doubt as a result. While the message of invaluability of African Americans and minorities in general might not be as overt as it was in the past, I think it is still palpable for those who experience it. And, I think for some there comes a breaking point, a place of depth where you say to yourself, maybe they’re right. Maybe I can’t be anything. Maybe I shouldn’t care anymore. The cards have been stacked against you for some time, and now they all come crashing down. Unless you are a superhuman, or possibly have the support of a great social network, it can become overwhelming to retain hope anymore. I think that is the place we saw the main character in as she refused to go to school. All the strength she had to hold back those thoughts that inundated her everyday was finally broken.

Fortunately though, she had support, and with that support, she found new strength. It is that strength to empower others that we all need to continue to cultivate in ourselves. Because there is inevitably going to be a person in our life who has lost hope too, and it will be our responsibility to work within our own framework to help them overcome what life has thrown in their path.

Al's reflection on whitewash

There are a couple of ways to talk about this film: one is in the context of using it as a facilitation video to bring forward discussions from a group of people, and another is my own thoughts as I watched the film and what I got out of it personally. It's my personal thoughts that I am going to blog about.

The film has many layers. In the beginning, I thought it was a film about teachers "whitewashing" their duties and not putting enough empathy and feelings into their jobs. They are robotic in their delivery and don't really care whether their students get it or not. They do their job mechanically, tiresome, and wishing the day was over. The students "whitewashed" their opportunities to learn and don't take their classes seriously. Except for one child (I think it was Angel) who volunteered to answer the teacher's question, no one cared. She didn't give the right answer but the twinkle in her eye showed that she was eager to learn and to participate, for that she should have been complemented but instead she was dismissed out of her hand for giving the wrong answer -- that's "whitewashing" in in its own way. Anytime we don't notice someone's effort, we are dismissing their worth.

Then came the twist of the plot and the violent attack on Angel and her brother. I discovered it was not about passivity of teachers and students. The emotional part of the film, as well as the obvious, was the action of the bullies, how the press reported the news and how the city officials handled the incident. David in his blog talked about it quite well.

Below the surface message of injustice, violence, hate and commercial exploitation, there is a more subtle quality about the film. I noticed some of the bullies had reservations about the gang leader's action. Some of them wanted him to stop. But peer pressure or lack of personal courage had caused them to become willing witnesses. In my youth, I could easily have been one of them. Though those acts might not be have been as violent or hateful, they were nonetheless intended to hurt, and my own non-action or going-along still haunts me. My work now is to work on my own will power, courage and integrity to stand up. I have not been tested too servilely yet to stand up. My hope is that I will choose integrity when I do get tested and not be whitewashing in my actions.

I also noticed that the brother was also quite conflicted in how he had handled the situation. He has to live with guilt (did I do enough), feeling neglected (grandma didn't pay much heed to his wound) and his anger about being slighted in his mind by the city official. There are a lot of feelings being "whitewashed", painted over and suppressed.

At the end, the story is about hope. It's about kids rising up to do something positive for one of their own. It's about moving on. And it's that optimism and hope that I hope to bring to the DC workshop. Every one of us can make a difference and there will be a tipping point that the goodness in us become the persistent mass of the planet -- where the color of rainbow and not whitewash is the guiding consciousness of the human race.