Perception Drives Beliefs which Alter Reality

I was preparing a for a class recently at the university where I teach a course on adolescence and we were going to talk about the school system. Having been raised in two very distinct cultures: Indigenous-Latino with Quechua roots and European American who's ancestors came two years after the first pilgrims came to North America, I am highly conscious of the filters with which we view the world and how they are shaped by our perceptions, which in turn are deeply impacted by our belief systems and highly impacted by our cultural references that impact norms and standards. So, when I think of reality, I am always looking for multiple realities knowing that it highly depends on the doorway of your perception.

When we talk about the U.S. system of education, we cannot divorce this from these multiple realities. We cannot speak about a system of education as if it holds only one window in which we all look through. Our experiences in any system of education will depend highly on the door in which we walk in.  As I researched for my class, I came across a letter from the interactions between the early European pilgrims and the Indigenous people of the Eastern states of North America. It was a response from one of the tribal elders to the colonists. In this letter the elder mentions an invitation made by the colonists for the tribe to send their brightest men to attend the college of the colonists. The tribe responded and a few of their men were sent. Upon returning to the tribe, these young men found their new found skills to be of no use and felt useless in face of the needs of the tribe. The elder mentions this in the letter and in turn invites the colonists to send them their brightest and best young men to be educated by the tribe. The colonists never respond to this invitation.

The interactions of this letter made me think how we define success and value according to our perceptions of reality and belief systems. If we value individualism, competition, and assertiveness than we may very well find success in our educational system as this is the doorway in which it was set up with a set of Western values and norms. But, as the letter suggests, if you enter through a different doorway, as did the elder's young men, then these offer very little value to the survival of your family and more importantly, tribe. If the colonists entered through the doorway of the tribal people on whose land they were building a nation, they might have found that instead of individualism, competition and assertiveness, they would find success through developing a collectivist approach to their tasks in which collectivism, collaboration and group consensus would take precedence. 

So, this is interesting historically, but what are the implications for today? 

Our schools are set up with a learning culture that ultimately, at its core, believes in individualism, competing and striving to be at the top and asserting yourself over others. If you walk in through this doorway and you hold these beliefs to be true, then you could do well. But if you are like me, and either you walk in two worlds in which one is collectivistic and one is individualistic, it is much harder to choose which doorway to walk through. One doorway sacrifices the other. 

So what to do?

When I think of this seemingly conundrum, there are two shifts that I think need to be a part of the change we all seek in the educational system and even in our home learning cultures. 

Multiple Doorways

It is important to recognize that many of us are walking through different doorways into a learning space. I don't mean different doorways in the sense that we are all individuals and with different strengths and weaknesses. I mean collectively, groups have different realities according to their cultural groups and the norms and beliefs of those groups that shape their world view and value system as in the example shared in the letter. 

Many students walk in through different doorways according to their culture and those things valued by each may differ than the school's dominant culture. This may seem small at first, but placing a student in between two cultures can create a clash, which without guidance, can cause an inner conflict. They might be left feeling that they have to choose one doorway to enter into the educational realm successfully, which can by its very nature ask them to sacrifice the other. 

Couple this conflict with the history of oppression humanity has experienced in various ways, in particular through its experiences of colonialism, and you have another layer of right and wrong. The right doorway to enter is through the dominant culture where you develop a strong sense of self and let that self-drive push you through to the top: the top of your class, your team, your group, your class, your art, your sport, your field, etc, etc, etc. This doorway will lead to success as defined by Western standards. 

We can help students with this conflict in two ways: 

One is to understand that these multiple doorways exist. This alone helps students realize that this conflict is not about them being inherently flawed for not finding the right way to succeed. Instead they can begin to work through the gifts and challenges of each doorway and help schools stretch into larger versions of excellence and success. Challenge the system to be more and ultimately, begin questioning itself.

Two, explore the history of oppression and its impact on all people. It did not only impact people of color negatively, those of European descent lost their humanity in order to ride the wave of success of colonialism. Explore with students how this oppression was systemized and shows up today in our school system, our neighborhoods, housing, etc. An excellent article on the Myth of Meritocracy cites a research study in which middle schoolers who came from historically oppressed communities did well academically until they reached the 7th grade. In 7th grade, right at the time when they begin to form a sense of cultural identity, they see the conditions of their home community group and because meritocracy is so strong in the dominant culture of the United States, they falsely believe the conditions of their people are because of an inherent flaw within them. Self-identifying with the negative stereotypes told about their cultural group, they fall into behaviors that ultimately harm them. The research study found that by empowering students with the truth of systematic oppression, students begin to realize it is a systemic condition and can be changed. Students begin to see themselves as protagonists of change, able to shift the reality of the conditions in which they live. 

Seeking Truth Through Consultation

Another important shift is moving away from dichotomous thinking. We currently live in a society

that is strongly polarized by right and wrong, yes and no, and when we think in these terms no one wins. Like a child moving through adolescence, we can try and hold onto these false dichotomies of right and wrong in an effort to find calm and balance in a world that increasingly feels unbalanced. As humanity collectively moves through the stage of adolescence, we will increasingly find ourselves needing to move away from simple answers of yes and no, to searching through the complexity of human experiences for the truth. This search for truth will require a new tool that can elevate our conversations from finger-pointing that runs on fear and pain, to a recognition of the oneness of humanity and the inherent value that each human soul has something of deep value to contribute. 

I have found the tool of consultation to be of great value for me and my family as we try and sift through the diverse cultures and belief systems that run through our family to the truth. Along with many other families, the hard realities of the society we live in have impacted us deeply and we at times also feel lost and confused. And, like other families, with historical oppression running deep in our blood, one can feel overwhelmed by the pain and anger that can well up at the callous effects this oppression can have on family relations and with larger society. The effects of oppression can show up in mental illness, in a false sense of isolation and division among loved ones, self-identifying with stereotypes and often feeling not good enough. These have all shown up at my doorstep either through familial experiences or with the many noble souls I get to engage with in healing work who try to shift through the mire of pain, fear and anger that wells up inside of them. 

I use consultation in the tradition of the Baha'i Faith, which asks the participants to detach from hoped for outcomes and instead to enter the consultation with a pure heart in search of truth. 

The first condition is absolute love and harmony - 'Abdu'l-Bahá 

As humanity moves through the mire of difficulties that lies before it, we can no longer hope to strong arm each other in believing that there is only one of us who is right. We must begin the path of maturity in which we recognize that humans are complex beings with many paths and doorways traveling through and around them. That answers lie in learning from each other and with each other. That truth will only come when we stop holding onto our version of reality as the only version. When we begin to recognize, that maybe there are multiple ways to view and experience the world, and to learn from each other about these multiple ways might mean suspending the truth as we know it with an open heart for a new truth to show up. 

And are you happy to see me? In Search of Love in Schools.

I have had the blessing to have many opportunities to visit classrooms on a regular basis in Southern California. I say blessing because of the opportunity this affords me to connect with children and youth and their incredible ability to still be present. They are not yet convinced of the need to wear the straight-jacket the world has tried to place on them. They are still laughing joyously - they still wonder openly - they still touch each other freely with hugs, fist bumps, shoulders crashing into each other reeling from jokes shared - and then, the bell rings and they summarily quiet into a stupor as they sit in rows and wait to be taught. 

The United States, like most countries in the world, are trying to find the most innovative, rigorous, critically demanding and relevant curriculum and strategies to teach this wonderful, upcoming generation. And in many ways, we've found it. Again and again, I see wonderfully planned, executed and assessed lesson plans. Learning objectives are clear, important information is delivered, students are required to ask relevant questions tied explicitly to the information presented, there is an exit ticket that ties back to the learning objective and still there is a tightness in the air that seems to stifle all the learning that would be had.

This taut stillness seems to suck life out of the air as the period ends and students file out only to come alive again in the hallways where they connect with each other once again.

Why is this?

Teachers, administrators, schools, researchers are all well-intentioned in their efforts to provide a rigorous learning experience in schools, but what of love. Where does love show up in our learning cultures?

In observing classrooms again and again, teachers are directing, instructing; principles are administering and managing; cafeteria and recess aides are ordering and serving - but who is loving? How can we hope to uplift the whole human being if we do not see the whole human being? Because a big part of the whole human being is the love that animates them.

Recently, I have been deeply drawn to learning more about the experience of students in schools that were legally segregated before 1954 in the United States. Many of the elders in my life who were in those schools tell me of a time when teachers loved them. When teachers knew their parents intimately: they were their friends, neighbors, church members and they knew their students were the best of them. They knew their students education was a community effort and when students would rise, the whole community rises. In Vanessa Walker's book, Their Highest Potential, she highlights the belief system that pervaded the school: These kids success is all of our business. And with this belief in front of them, teacher's would stay overtime for professional development, parents would sacrifice financially to ensure the school had all it needs, home visits were part of the home-to-school connection, the entire movement of the community and school were centered around the upliftment of the student. This was not a program or strategy the school was implementing, it was a belief system they centered around. When you believe something, you don't have to think about it, it is evident in all of your actions; it governs your choices; it shapes your language; it infuses all of the spaces you inhabit - including your classroom.

I am not suggesting we return to legally segregated schools, though there is evidence we are more segregated now than before when it was legal. The time of seeing each other as separate tribes and people is rapidly coming to an end. We are one people, one race and the recognition of this truth is quickly unfolding in its stead. The scientific evidence of the oneness of humanity has been unequivocally proven. It is not a matter of hard science or strategies we are after, it is a matter of the human heart and this is more delicate work. Because the oneness of humanity has to become a belief system. When you believe something you are invested - remember it is infused in everything you do. And so if I believe in the oneness of humanity, than it is all learning animated by love. For I want to know about you, learn with you, from you...because I know, you bring something of great value to the table, as do I.

How can we learn from these communities that have not only survived, but flourished despite the odds against them? The peoples of African descent have been under the yoke of oppression the world over due to colonialism and the instrument of whiteness it used to measure the worth and value of human beings, allowing it to perpetuate enslavement securing free labor. The indigenous peoples of the Americas who's land was given freely to European males, while they were displaced and their profound knowledge of natural sciences destroyed, continue to be pushed to the fringes of society always their name - Indio - said with a bitter taste in the mouth. And the people of Asian descent, who try to balance the dangerous walk of assimilation and preservation - assimilating to a country's dominant culture to survive, while staying connected to their ancestral heritage. And what of those of European descent, who refuse to forget the injustices that were done to others in their name? Who strive to find their roots and honor their ancestors resistance to oppression, by calling out the beast out loud, who expects them to also be loyal to whiteness.

En Lak Ech, they all say! Tu eres mi otro yo - you are the other me. And when we believe this and it infuses how we show up to the world - then if I disagree with something you have done or said - my response is, let me learn more. Tell me more about your experience. There is something I do not know or understand that has led you to say what you are saying and I want to understand. Or at minimum, be present and listen to the other me.

When I walked out of those classrooms I couldn't help but wonder what I would be thinking if I was one these students walking into the class. After all the learning objectives and strategies and think-pair-shares...I would want to know - and are you happy to see me?

Because after all, I think we all want to be bearers of joy and my job as the adult in your life, is to see you. En Lak Ech!

For a podcast of this blog post click here: The Human Experience

"Essential Lists to Create Change"...In an age of instant and profound transformation.

Lists like this abound. Although well-intentioned, vague lists like this can be more dangerous than they are helpful. As an indigenous-Latina with strong European ancestry I know about straddling two cultures. My father's culture, Quechua Indian with Bolivian heritage is a communal culture where the strength is prized in the group. In my mother's European heritage, with the dominating spirit of the early pilgrims and subsequent puritans the strength of this culture is independence and individualistic efforts. So how the world is viewed and interacted with is very different to each. 

When you translate this into reforming school policy in an attempt to make schools more equitable, we have to be careful that we recognize the power of culture, the hidden belief systems held within each culture and how to honor these differences. 

For example, asking schools to make as a non-negotiable the importance of creating a warm and welcoming environment in and of itself is not bad. However, when it comes to implementing this, you have a very different picture. 

When I worked coordinating parent involvement at a school district, of course we visited this important list of non-negotiables, and more. According to research, the number one reason that influences parent involvement is creating a welcoming environment . So how to do this? I would sit with the school leadership team and we would pore over the research and these lists of non-negotiables, and school staff would say, "We do have a welcoming environment!" Here's what they do:

• We send out flyers to invite them to meetings
• We tell them about our events
• We have pictures of staff on our walls
• We have positive messages and decorations
• We have back-to-school night

And on and on. And yes, these are wonderful efforts to invite families to your campus, if they are from your cultural script. In the dominant culture of our country - white, middle class values and beliefs - this is a great list. To each of these you could subscribe a belief system from this cultural group, in particular individualism. The flyer is to the point and it's up to you as an individual to make it happen. If you want to speak up at the meetings as an individual, you do. Staff pictures tell you about those in charge. Again, each of these subscribe to a belief system from this cultural group. But what if you serve people who are not from that cultural group? What if you serve people whose cultural group has very different norms of behavior and belief systems? Then these messages don't say the same thing. 

When I was a teacher, like all teachers, I was constantly moving from the moment I arrived on campus until late into the afternoon. I also knew the importance of developing relationships with the families of those I was serving. One day, as I ran from the staff lounge to my classroom, I heard someone call out to me.

Buenos Dias Ms. Marañón! I turned around and saw parents waving at me through the gates. 

A common response would be to wave back, "Hello, sorry I have to get ready for the day!"

I knew better.

I ran over to them to shake their hand and respond, "Buenos Dias! Disculpe que tengo que preparar la clase." 

"No se preocupe, anda, no mas queríamos saludarla!"

And with that brief interaction I gained countless hours. I knew from my home training that taking those few moments to shake their hand, say good morning and than politely excuse myself to set up my morning class spoke volumes about how important they were to me. 

When you come from a communal culture, relationships are everything. 

If I want you to join me in a meeting, I invite you personally and I greet you at the door with a warm handshake to welcome you. Food is waiting for you so that you have a nice drink and light snack while we meet and discuss ideas. Food is not there because I know that's why you'll come, but because I understand that food always helps create a warm and welcoming environment. Who we serve matters, not who's serving. Pictures of students and families and all the myriad activities that they're engaged in with our staff would abound. There is not just one night to engage with families on our year's learning, there are multiple moments and times to meet and connect around student learning. 

So when we say, Create a warm and welcoming environment, Develop students as good people and learners...we have to be very careful not to treat these as blithe statements, when in reality they are profound and require deep digging. How you interpret a warm and welcoming environment is different for each culture. What does it mean to develop a student into a good person and learner? Somebody who follows the rules? Someone who sits quietly and takes good notes and responds well on tests? Because these are not the people we venerate in history. These are not the people who created change in history. 

Non-negotiables in schools are a willingness to question, develop meaningful relationships with those we serve, learn to re-create and co-create our learning culture again and again as times change, people change and how we show up to our core values may also change. Our core values may not change, but how you approach them may. And probably most important of all, know that if we truly desire a learning culture, it means learning: make mistakes, listen with empathy, change course when needed.  

At the core of all of these statements is the true belief in equality. If I value you as equal to me, than learning your cultural language, your cultural norms, inviting you to help me co-create our shared learning culture that impacts someone we both love the most - your student - is not too much, nor too much trouble.   

Disruption in Our Learning Cultures Develops Families as Learning Partners

Today, technology is a bullet train and rapidly transforming every sector in society. Disruption is evident in companies like Airbnb and Lyft that have completely rearranged how we vacation and commute. This disruption not only shifts what we do, but impacts our mindset, as well. We think differently about lodging when we vacation now. Our boundaries and expectations change when we order a ride. So, when we think of the disruption technology has caused in education, we must ask ourselves: What is the mindshift that accompanies this change?

What often makes this feel uncertain is how new these learning spaces are to us - we have never had such a strong disruption in our learning culture before in formal education. This disruption asks us to rethink the role of the teacher, students, administrators, the tools that we use, the space we learn in, the time when we learn -- everything has been upended and is being reevaluated to best serve the needs of the 21st century. What makes this shift  unique is that the impact is not just on the school environment, but it impacts the home learning culture as well. How do we engage parents in a learning shift that we are still unsure of how to navigate ourselves?

Workshop on ed tech for families

Every major learning shift requiring professional development for teachers also, necessitates training for parents. It does not have to be the same kind of training, but should be relevant to the person receiving it - from teachers to parents to bus drivers. This is not something district personnel need to figure out for everyone. We just need to create an opportunity for these different groups to come together to reflect on these new learning opportunities. Research shows that asking open-ended questions foments curiosity, and curiosity leads to new ideas. So, we should ask parents where there are opportunities to support the type of learning this research encourages in their homes, their learning spaces. The same is true for every person that comes into contact with students - bus drivers, office staff, etc. When I bring this up, I often hear, “That’s not their role, we are asking them to do something that belongs to teachers.” This is a false dichotomy based on assumptions that learning happens in silos, and that the community supporting the child is unable to nurture the academic learning that happens in the classroom. Including all members of the learning community in professional development, creates meaning that serves students in a very direct and profound way! We have to give all participants in the life of a child an opportunity to understand the shifts in learning that impact the child.

Here’s why this is important work and why it is imperative we include families in our learning spaces at schools: Kids go home somewhere! And wherever that home is, there is a learning space there. If it doesn’t mirror the learning space students experience in school, then they don’t know whom to listen to - their parents or their teachers?

This conundrum has practical implications. As educators, we know that students need to think critically, and, in order to do this, they need to learn to question and, to dig deep into a problem or idea and try to uncover the why. It is an incredible skill to develop and will help the world uncover truths that are sorely needed.

So, where do families come in? Developing What we have learned about any new skill requires two components in order to develop strong brain patterns and synapses: repetition and emotional connection. Time spent learning a new skill in school is not enough - students need to keep practicing in diverse learning spaces, including home. However, traditional methods of parenting often do not support this style of learning:

I want to go to my friend’s house tonight. You can’t go. Why not? Because I said so.

Whoa, why are your grades so bad?! I don’t know. That’s just an excuse. You need to try harder.

When we don’t include families in the conversation of learning that we are having, they will not know the powerful impact these type of answers can have on their child’s brain and thinking patterns. If we shared with families the learning we are having around the power of questions and the importance of repetition and emotion in developing strong brain patterns and synapses, their conversations could be more meaningful:

I want to go to my friend’s house tonight.

Tell me more about your plan. Why is tonight important?

Whoa, why are your grades so bad?!

I don’t know.

Let’s look at each one and tell me more about the class and what is making it a challenge.

Parent workshop on technology

These are not new ideas, yet framing them in the context of learning, gives them added urgency and a deeper layer of understanding. It also gives parents one of the most powerful roles in parent involvement, according to Johns Hopkins researcher Joyce Epstein “There are Six Types of Parent Involvement “. According to Dr. Epstein’s research, learning at Home is the type of parent involvement that most strongly correlates with student achievement. No wonder! This is where parents get to engage on a profound and meaningful level with their kids in their learning. This doesn’t require them to have formal education, it just requires them to participate more effectively in their child’s learning environment - including the one they create at home.

When you integrate technology into the learning culture, it is imperative to involve families in this conversation. They, too, wonder how these new tools support learning and often believe that technology is just for playing. So, when kids come home with school-assigned devices and are watching videos for homework, parents don’t understand that this is part of the flipped classroom. Or, when kids come home with their school devices and are chatting in online classrooms, parents don’t understand that this is a powerful way to develop academic discourse. Including families in relevant trainings about the disruptions happening in our learning cultures empowers them to be active participants in this learning shift.

Author with district parent leaders

Now, we can begin to truly talk about equity. When we include families as equal learning partners in our schools’ learning cultures we will ultimately, begin to explore this question: How do learning cultures in our students’ homes impact our schools, and what can we learn from their families? This is another powerful path that further supports the dramatic shifts in learning.

Creating Magic in the Learning Culture

I am often invited to visit schools that have received awards because of high ratings in their use of educational technology and as innovative learning centers. This always excites me, a place where creative learning takes place for kids? Yes, sign me up! And from an initial glance they are definitely different learning environments. New flexible furniture, colorful walls and decor, excited adults - awesome!  It is apparent, that there is an effort to change the learning environment; whether or not it’s actually happening at the core level of values and belief systems remains to be seen. What eventually unfolds is something we are accustomed to: some children are eager to share their projects with you, while the majority sit back and quietly share when prompted. What is most striking, is the projects are all vastly similar, if not starkly the same. Where then is the innovation and more importantly, what was the professional development like?  

Innovation is a big buzzword right now in education. We need our kids to innovate - we want them to be creative thinkers - they need to think outside the box. The question then becomes, how do we do this?

In an effort to be innovative, schools often latch on to big ideas, like “maker spaces” (classrooms with Legos and art materials whose intention is to allow students to be creative and innovative in their thinking). Many schools are looking towards creating robotics or Lego clubs. All of these intentions are laudable. Unfortunately, these efforts alone do not impact learning for everyone. To do this, we must consider our learning environment.

Bringing in new furniture or programs without shifting the learning culture results in reverting to familiar classroom arrangements and teaching new programs with traditional, teacher driven pedagogy.

When exploring questions around access in education, we have to consider the learning culture of the classroom and school. Although many of the aforementioned efforts may intend to impact the learning culture, they often generate excitement among a small minority of teachers and students. How then, do we impact all students to truly think in creative and innovative ways?

Our starting point most likely is misplaced. Rather than look at students, we need to start with adults. Students are born ready for change and innovation, innately curious about the world around them. By middle school, this inherent drive to learn is minimized so drastically, it is troubling. That this happens in adolescence, when students’ brains once again have become as active as when they were toddlers undergoing an incredible transformative process, tells us that the learning culture surrounding them, rather than any innate characteristics, is what impedes innovative learning. We adults need to be willing to reflect on whether our learning culture truly allows all students to learn.

The good news is that there are adults who are very willing to take these risks and try something new, fail miserably, reflect, and try again! Every campus has at least one of these teachers who is, ready to create change and try new things. It is these teachers who create magic in our classrooms and from whom we can learn to do the same. How can we scale what they have mastered? First, start with the willing and then have them coach peer to peer. These risk-taking teachers are often more than willing to share. They have not just latched onto the tools but also the learning culture that is required to go with the  new tools and programs.

Being willing to reimagine our learning culture requires us to examine the skills we hope our students achieve, and to assess, whether the characteristics and qualities of the environments support these skills. If we desire to cultivate the skill of curiosity in our students, then we need to ask ourselves what corresponding change in the learning culture is required. A quality that complements curiosity is risk-taking. However, many react to the prospect of risk-taking with fear: What if our students fail? What if our school doesn’t do well in state testing? These fears often stifle the risk-taking that enables innovation.

My son a freshman in college, recently described to me the frustration he sees from his college teachers, who want their students to speak up and take risks in the classroom through problem-solving. He said none of his peers ever volunteered or spoke up, even though his teacher encouraged them to try, even if it results in mistakes. “Why?”, I asked. His response: “Because they’re afraid to fail.”

“Where does this come from?” I asked.

“It starts in middle school and solidifies in high school. If we make mistakes it affects our grades, and if our grades aren’t good, we know it’ll affect our college prospects or even passing a class. So we don’t like making mistakes, because it means we aren’t doing well and the consequences are too severe.”

In one swift response to the question, “Why don’t students take risks?”

my son summarized our educational system’s culture that ties student performance to their grades, which are tied to school ratings, college entrance, prestige, etc.

I realize this asks us to reexamine our entire system, including our grading practices. Many schools are doing just this. Hampshire College in Massachusetts has dropped standardized testing as a requirement for admission. According to the school’s president Jonathan Nash, in an article published by The Independent, 
"Our applicants collectively were more motivated, mature, disciplined and consistent in their high school years than past applicants."

Although many of us cannot make sweeping decisions like this, we can begin by examining the very area where students will spend a good part of their day - our classrooms.

How will students feel when they walk in? Will they, for that brief period, feel encouraged to stretch their limits and take risks? Will they know this is a space where they can tackle tough questions? Learning asks all of us to be present - not just our intellect, but our full selves, which includes our emotions and spirit. What will drive students through problem-solving, if not the inner spirit to know, the gnashing of emotions to pull through the unknowns of questioning?

So when it comes to teacher buy-in and scaling up, start small. Good learning practices can catch like wildfire.

Professional development should not just consist of learning new programs and using new tools and furniture. It should also be a space where educators have an opportunity for deep reflection on their own learning practices. Asking big questions. Educators need time to wrestle with these questions, and then the freedom to begin cultivating a new culture in their classrooms. To do this once is not enough. Professional development is more effective if it models coaching. Ultimately, good professional development should open up more questions and offer an opportunity to continue honing in on these questions throughout the year.

In the end, we have to ask ourselves, what drives us, what keeps us moving through? And then, with an honest lens, open up to the risks that enable innovation - creating magic in the classroom.

Equity and Access: How to Bring All Voices to the Table

Recently, I was asked to assess the climate of a local school in preparation for the leadership team’s implementation of professional development that would have profound impact on the pedagogical and technological environment of learning. I walked the campus, spent time with the teachers, observed lessons and students and most importantly, I listened to the language being used. What was the word choice of the adults, what beliefs did it carry about learning and more importantly the students they were serving?

There was love present to be sure, in the humorous jostling of students who were late, the ones who were sleepy and wanted to take a nap and in general between the students and teachers there was little hostility. Until the lesson on social media came up and then the tone shifted. Teachers and teacher-aides were condescending of student use of social media. The adults chided the students for not knowing how to communicate anymore, for being attached to their devices, more importantly, conversation stopped and communication became one-way as teachers became the dominant voice in the classroom and students silently sat taking in the obviously biased view of them as incompetent in communication.

Communication is key to strong human relationships. And with the rise of social media and technology communication has shifted drastically for everyone.

Technology is the perfect amplifier that has uncovered many voices, even those we hope to keep quiet and in the dark. The voices of our deepest fears and our most guarded secrets have now been exposed to the light. We’ve seen this in particular with social media. In 2013 when the first Hunger Games movie came out and one of the most beloved characters, Rue, was cast as a young black girl, social media went wild. Tweets flooded the internet decrying, “why does rue have to be black not gonna lie kinda ruined the movie” and “Kk call me racist but when I found out rue was black her death wasn’t as sad” and on and on.

These sentiments have always existed, just underground and unexposed. To say social media or

technology is why this is happening is to defer the attention from the real, hard issues we are facing in society, in this case racism. These are issues that have never been dealt with well and with meaningful dialogue in public spaces. Technology is changing this and bringing up opportunities for difficult conversations. Stepping up to this opportunity will create profound shifts in our society; doing this globally is a challenge.

Education is no exception to this shift in culture. Schools are shapers of culture and in an ever advancing civilization, this shift is both profound and deeply challenging. Schools not only react to the cultural shifts happening around them, they actively drive the culture forward.

In an attempt to embrace the profound shifts happening in society, education is making technology one of its central players in learning. This also inadvertently brings in all the issues society is trying to grapple, by amplifying these voices in the classroom. This, in turn, brings up the issue of access and voice - who gets technology and whose voices are heard? The discussion on access is broad and long with many players and entry points. In this article, my focus will be on providing access through a lens of equity. How do we address access with equity in mind?

Addressing access requires a two-pronged approach focused on technical and cultural change. Both of these require a new mindset where we question our preconceived notions, adapt our perceptions, and reexamine our biases.

Questions we need to ask are: When we work with students who are low income, do we see their lack of resources as  a deficit and their families unable to provide for them? When we work with students of color, how do sub-conscious biases show up in our expectation of student learning and behavior?

For example, with Asian students, is there an assumption they’ll be good at math? Black students disruptive? Native American students environmentally conscious? How do our perceptions of different student groups get in the way of serving our students equitably? Are our assumptions of their use of devices congruent with our biases?

Do we draw unfair conclusions about students of a particular socioeconomic status or ethnicity or family structure -- and do these conclusions impede our ability to act fairly and effectively to increase access? Whereas if they were not low income, might we perceive them as school ready with greater access to resources? If they were not a student of color, might our biases about them not inhibit their educational experience (i.e. Asian students are naturally good at math and computer science, African-American students disproportionately being placed in special education, etc.)? How does any of this impact access to technology?

Biases and perceptions drive decision-making. They impact the opportunities we give our students to engage with technology, inhibiting how we prepare them with skills for the 21st century.

For those of us in education checking our perceptions is key; we hold the lives of children in our hands. Often, in working with districts, I am told that the population they serve is low-income, and therefore there is no way they can afford to buy their students devices or get high-speed internet connectivity. Again, perceptions drive behavior and decision making.

I come from a strong communal immigrant background on my father’s side of the family. I remember when one of my cousins needed something for school my aunt would call my father who would then call my uncle and so on, until all the adults had been consulted and it was agreed who would contribute what. Whatever it was that my cousin needed, it was purchased by everyone. Surely, my family was below the poverty line, but it didn’t matter. Education was a priority and when something was needed, the family (and community) would come together. While my family was perceived as unable to pay for educational materials, they found a way, because they understood the urgency and the need behind the materials that were needed for my cousin’s education. Had the school invited my family to the decision making table about materials students will need and why they will need them, they would find that low income families are more than willing to step up to the opportunity to participate and support schools in the decision making process. We continue to miss these opportunities in education because of our perceptions and biases.   

Often in education we solve problems through the dominant culture of our schools. In the United States, this is predominantly a white middle-class lens. But when applied to situations where communities solve problems differently, that lens may give a distorted picture. What looks like a below-the-poverty-line income in one family, is actually not when all family members ally forces as mine did. Every community is unique and it's important to make sure we check our perceptions at the door, and include them in the decision making process.

If families and students continue to be perceived through our biases, they may not be given the opportunity to use technology and thus participate effectively in these conversations, and we need everyone at the table to grapple with these most profound and painful elements of our society. We

cannot afford to continue shaming students in their use of technology and social media, derailing their education with punitive measures that only drive the behavior underground - lives are at stake. We need to shift our belief system and truly follow our motto: every student matters.  

We cannot afford to miss these opportunities for empowering student voices and their families in schools. We must learn to have brave conversations about race, gender, income disparities and the false perceptions we carry about each other. Where else should we have these conversations but in our schools where learning is core to its existence?

Creating equity in access isn’t monetary; at its core, it’s a belief.

Moving away from a dichotomous world to a vision of wholeness

If a man has ten good qualities and one bad one,  look at the ten and forget the one; and if a man has ten bad qualities and one good one, look at the one and forget the ten.  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

What we focus on will come alive.

The concept of living a dichotomous life is one that I have been reflecting on lately. I grew up a blended story: Always the rhythm of my father's culture beating in my veins. Always the inquisitive call of my mother's people pulling me forward. Between my Anglican and Quechua roots I was always in motion, even if I was still. Always seeking, dancing, feeling, moving between the different chords of sounds, tastes and visions my parents' cultures gave me. So the idea of choosing one, emphasizing one, is not something I ever felt impelled to do. If you saw me, spoke with me, engaged in a little time with me, my father's culture would initially jump out. I remember consciously nurturing this culture within me and seeking it out - primarily because living in a society whose dominant culture is White middle class, my mother's New England culture was not hard to find or grasp. It was my father's culture, that kept eluding me as I tried to find it in the world around me. But when others looked at me, immediately I was pegged: Latina. 

The author, Ymasumac

I remember once sharing this struggle with both my mother and aunt, who were born and raised deep in the heart of New England in the Northeast corner of the United States. I felt this struggle strongly; every syllable I shared held the emotion of this tension within me. My aunt, in an effort to soften my feelings said, "But Yma, you're White." I immediately shot back and said, "Aunt J, nobody looks at me and thinks White girl!" I didn't mean to be so direct, but that was it. The world defined me by my appearance and nothing else. So I was of one hue.

There have been many moments that define my position of not choosing sides; this was definitely one of them. My aunt was right. I was a White girl from European-ancestry-some blue blood-some gypsy  and very much a Latina-Indigenous-Daughter of an immigrant girl as well. So I have embraced both and move through them consistently and with purpose, grateful I have a walk that refuses to choose sides. This has permeated my world view and all that connects to it. 

It is for this reason I was pretty excited when I saw that Hampshire College has chosen to move away from one of the most stressful, isolating and often expensive experiences of moving into higher education: standardized tests. In the article I read from the Washington Post it states that Hampshire College has decided to refuse to accept the SAT or ACT as part of their admission process! Priceless!

Commons area of Hampshire College

These tests carry such a narrow scope of reality and thinly slice a student's learning into one small point. Most universities state this is only "one" facet of the entire application they look at...but if as a society we are known to view things from a dichotomous position, how can it not narrow our vision when we see a high, or worse, a low score? All else becomes a blur. Like me, everything else about me falls away if all I say is, I'm Latina or White, which I'm not allowed to anyway because of my physical appearance...another illusion - it dismisses the Quechua in me that held such strength and courage, it ignores the curious and inquisitive nature of my European ancestors and the countless amazing women on both sides who held life together in a strand of love when the world told them they were of lesser value.
We are all a make-up of our ancestors. We cannot slice them into bits and dismiss those parts that are not part of the physical illusion of who we are. What the eye can see is not always true. We have to dig deeper and perceive the wholeness in all things.

Hampshire confirmed this idea that every time we focus on one area with too much emphasis, others can become minimized. According to Hampshire College, when they no longer had the SAT or ACT to filter the student's application through, "...every other detail of the student’s application became more vivid."

Learning is this way too. We cannot slice learning into parts and say because of one slice being deficient, the whole will not succeed. I have watched my youngest son, a boy of incessant curiosity, who excels in all endeavors that interest him - academically, sports, piano - as well as carry a spirit of service in these efforts, struggle intensely during standardized tests. They demoralize and handicap his thinking about his potential because he is not able to demonstrate the breadth of his learning. We work with him continuously to continue to look at the whole. This is difficult when society, and especially our educational structures that reflect society, look at the world in parts and give value and weight to these parts differently. For example, we give an A for excellence. But what does this mean exactly? Excellent in what?  Does excellence have an end?  Do we finish the quest for excellence? How can we quantify something when it is a continuous expression and acknowledgment of growth in areas of exploration? This also opens up the discussion of whose filter are we looking through that determines "excellence"?  Suffice it to say that when it comes to the dominant culture in our society, the filter of our educational system is most always White middle class, eliminating whole swaths of humanity.

Children are born naturally as active agents of their own learning; we cannot continue as a society to stifle this natural desire in them to explore the world they live in. It is not enough to blame the educational system, when as parents we direct so much of the learning as well in our own home learning environments. Or as a society we build the structures and spaces for engagement and innovation. Blame will not bring about the exploration and change we desire. We need to rethink what learning looks like and how we will quantify learning - at school, home and in our working environments.

When a respected institution, like Hampshire College, takes a bold step to eliminate such an archaic form of assessing learning and success, such as the SAT and ACT in their application process - we must ask ourselves, how will we respond to these forces around us and support the outliers who are creating change and new avenues of thinking?

I for one will continue to reflect on my own learning environment that I co-create with others. I will also encourage my son to apply to Hampshire College and be a part of innovative change, as is the desire of his heart.

In a world driven by love Part II

I have been reflecting on love for the past few years...so many moments in which love has been stressed in my life - almost like the strength of love was being tested. How is love tested? In my experience love is tested by those you give yourself over most completely to. For me, this happened first with my children, husband and sister. And when you give yourself over to love, it is leaving your heart open forever. This is a powerful decision. I remember once hearing Elizabeth Stone reflect this out loud so perfectly: "Making the decision to have a child - it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." This mirrored my sentiments exactly after having my children, especially once they grew up into young adults and I watched them exercise the power of choice.

It was humbling and it was then I realized the power of love. Love is stronger than any force I can imagine for it can contain and hold together when everything else fails and yet, it is tender and gentle. What a power love is!

So naturally, I was excited to see one of the keynotes at my favorite conferences - ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) not only be a personal friend of mine, but speak on love in the context of technology, equity and education - good stuff!

Ruha Benjamin, in her keynote Set phasers to Love Me elevated the conversation around technology asking educators in the audience to think more critically about the vast changes we are experiencing as a society and to reimagine the drive behind the design of our society. When we reimagine our learning spaces as laboratories where equity is the norm, then every child's unique qualities are realized.

Unfortunately, children today live in parallel realities where some are crushed and others are realized. So where do we start in our effort to create change?

Imagine According to Ruha, there are competing imaginaries. So how do we empower all voices to participate at the table when decisions are being made? As Alex Rivera says, The battle of real power tomorrow, begins with the struggle of who gets to dream today. This is why I am such a strong believer of ensuring diversity is always present at the table - every table:

• The table of administrators who decide what is important to carry forward in a classroom and who set the goals and vision for schools
• The district office table that decides what is needed to focus on in schools to ensure all students are successful 
• The table at the county and state education offices where policy is created that will impact teachers and students' learning spaces 

If the only people at these tables are from the dominant culture, then only the needs envisioned through the filter of this culture will be viewed. If all students are to be served, then we need a diversity of voices and cultures at the tables of decision making.

Ruha reflected out the importance of considering design by who and for what end she would ask. Of course the question of design, is not one to consider just in education - though it's important to ask who are policies serving and who is creating them?

The design of any creation is filtered through the belief system of the creator. The example Ruha gave was of the design of benches. Who designed them and to serve who? In many cases, they are designed to deter transients from laying down on them.

So how do we hack into the default settings that were created as tools to hold and control people in place? For example, the code of rape: We train women in these "Please don't rape me" trainings as if it were their job to not get raped! As Ruha reminded us, racism and sexism are coded into our society and instead of code switching - we need to just rewrite the code!

Too often in education we do not want to have the conversation about the racism our students or teachers of color experience because of fear that people will be offended. Who will be offended? In many cases, those who will be offended are either Anglo-Americans or those who believe in the dominant culture and believe racism no longer exists. We are also not comfortable with conversations that bring up strong emotions. As a Western society, we are not good at understanding emotions. This is a discussion for another post, though it's important to note as part of why we hesitate to have these crucial conversations.
Jesse Williams gave a powerful speech at the BET Awards in which he stressed, "the burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander". We cannot sacrifice our students - all students - because we are afraid the bystander will be offended. When one student is sacrificed, all students are sacrificed. The Mayan have an expression that sums up the belief of who we are: In Lak'Ech: Tu eres mi otro yo - You are my other me. We are one body of energy as a people, when one person or group of people are stifled, we all are stifled. The right hand will feel the effects of the left hand being cut off.

We are in a society in which racism has become institutionalized and is coded in the very fiber of our society: There is research showing the amount of negative images of people of color vs white people, women naked vs men in media, etc. and the impact this has on our values and belief system as a society.

Ruha raised this issue and how it shows up in technology when you do a Google search of three Black youth vs. three White youth. The difference in images that come up are called algorithmic discrimination. This can be fixed, but takes time and we are not very good nor thoughtful in our society of taking this time. Again, we need to look at the design behind these algorithms and who they serve. These images, this story serves the dominant culture.

It is important we tell our own story and those in the dominant culture give space for all stories to be heard. Until that time, we need to continue to retell our stories again and again to keep stressing the dominant culture. In her final thoughts Ruha shared a quote from the Baha'i Writings that give us cause to pause and reflect on where we are headed and how we are getting there:

"Children are the most precious treasure a community can possess. They bear the seeds of the character of future society...They are a trust no community can neglect with impunity...Love demands discipline, the courage to accustom children to hardship, not to indulge their whims or to leave them entirely to their own devices. An atmosphere needs to be maintained in which children feel that they belong to the community and share in its purpose."

So what will drive our story? What has always driven our story: Love.

As my father told me when I was fifteen...Don't you know hijita why your grandmothers sacrificed and never gave up even though the conquistadores raped them and sold their children to slavery? For you hijita, so that you would be here. 

Now that's love.

In a world driven by love Part I

If you have ever been in a relationship of some kind - so that's all of us - then you know that love is complicated. I mean love is simple and profound and it is complex and riles up all other emotions stretching parts of our being we never knew could be stretched so far. And still we participate, again and again, in this experience of love. I often wonder if we do, because we are energy beings made from and of love. I know this can sound sappy...but after a quarter of a century of my life parenting I know what love can do. Love has driven me to be more, to stretch myself out in ways I didn't think possible, to re-think belief systems I held deep within, to hold to hope and faith in ways that are beyond my limited capacity for understanding. Love has asked me to re-imagine life again and again and it has not done this quietly. And love shows up differently. For me, love shows up in the conversations I hold with my children, the time we take to dive into deep topics of import and when we hash out problems together trying to find a common understanding. For my husband, love shows up in his steadfast hand at work, his disciplined way of ensuring he has done his part to provide for our home, and in the careful choices he makes when he calls a day off to volunteer for our kids school activities knowing he will lose a day of pay. Even our budget is made of love. We make careful decisions about how we will spend our money, choosing to use it on those things that reflect our values and beliefs. These are all driven by love. 

So how does this understanding of love show up in the world? 

At the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Conference the opening keynote speaker, Michio Kaku, spoke about the fourth wave of wealth creation in our society: technological advances.

I listened to all the exciting advances being made from the internet on contact lenses, digital wall paper and flexible screens you can unravel from your phone to human ears being digitalized and grown from human cells. One has to wonder, what drives all of this innovation...what pushes us forward to learn more, to know more and to desire more. 
There is a natural curiosity that is innate in children and we seek to find out the why of life. As we become older, life becomes more complex, and unraveling the why can be harder to do. In Western society we like answers that are concrete and seem finite. The more challenging the questions in life, the harder it can be to find the finite answers. But we persevere, like in our relationships, we persevere, when we discover something new we change our belief systems. Why? I argue, science is also driven by love. There is a desire to know and to seek to understand, to solve complex problems of the life of matter. Maybe these waves that Michio Kaku talks about are really waves of love that are just showing up differently in our world. What is wealth anyway, if not abundance? And abundance is a quality of the spirit, in the world of matter it shows up as wealth. When I think of the fourth wave that Dr. Kaku talks about in these terms, then we are entering a time when love is exponential! If love is a force, an energy - which I believe it is - then what an explosion of love we are seeing in biotechnology, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and quantum physics. And love will do what it does - it will stretch us and demand more from us! Is it any wonder that we are being challenged to question those things which we have always held dear: What does communication look like today? What does it mean to be connected? How do I understand all the information that is coming at me? 
So this fourth wave of love will demand more of us - as Dr. Kaku says, it will ask us to be more creative and more innovative in our thinking. After all, robots are just adding machines and because of their speed they create an illusion of intelligence.  Robots, do not have that animating force within each of us that binds and connects to each other...asking, by simply existing, that we be more.