Meaningful conversations

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

Community engagement is definitely an important way of changing the way we change thoughts towards education. According to Albert Einstein, the world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.  Meaningful conversations must change the way we think. They must push people to action.  Too often, conversations results in wasted time - and nothing, productive to show for it. However today was different. 

I was wondering within myself, how does one begin a conversation? where do you start asking the questions from? But a conversation is about creating opportunities and thus i created mine. I am headed to Waihara area of Othaya. Its coooold. However, i am doing this. I am going to do this. The moment the Matatu stops, i board a motorbike. I don't know how i picked this young man but i don't regret that i did.

The conversation starts immediately, after all we are born curious spirits on the inside. " How do you tell the difference between an educated man and an uneducated one? " I ask him. I can feel the smile and really i am seated behind him slowly turning into an icicle. He moves from the basics to the highest level quite quickly. You see this our politicians he says, there is one who is a standard 7 drop out and one who has his degrees and diplomas. But i like and we like our standard 7 drop out. My mouth drops open. Why i muse? one answer....INTEGRITY and leadership.

Okay so is education just about integrity and leadership? i wonder out loud. Surprisingly he says yes. Yes!!!! and goes on to explain that education is about the whole child. Producing a child who can change the world despite their handicap. And with that my iced self arrives at destination (gosh its cold). That was a beautiful insight. It reminded me of a quote from Margaret Mead...“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”  This young man is a thoughtful citizen. Maybe he hasnt seen it yet but his thought may have just changed his world.

Since i must thaw out as i await my appointment, i enter into a cafe my focus is the tea and mandazi (they make this bigger than elephant ears...guaranteed to stay in your stomach the whole day). In Kenya and especially the village you must understand that a village cafe is  more of a meeting point. More interesting spaces to have meaningful conversations. So i take out my chosen weapon of war...the 2015 NYERI COUNTY UWEZO report and place it on the table. It has quite a catchy title. Again the people are curious and so naturally i ask them, Do you believe that your children are really learning?

I must have hit a soft spot. One gentleman volunteers....children are the work of the teacher.. the teacher should know what is the problem with the child.....i dont believe that reading helps because its a thing we do to kill time after form four...........WHAAAT!!!!, do you actually know that parents give 70% of what makes a good student? They all pose briefly, cups in the air, half bitten mandazis and then the conversation continues...DID you know that exposing your children to story books and written work improves their English?.... Did you know that our curriculum apart from one subject are all written in English? As a parent what are you doing about it? Maybe this is getting into their system. There is too much debate going on so i take my leave, but today a seed has been planted. My conversations are not empty. They are something. And as i leave......they are talking about the fact that 6 out of 100 children in standard eight cannot do class 2 level work.



What do you think is affecting the education of your children and What would you do to help improve the school or the education of your children? 

I posed this question to about 40 village elders a little later... the room was instantly on fire ....the highlights were very interesting
What affects them
- There is a real drug problem around here. (i actually found drunk men at 9am in the morning)
- The rate of HIV is so high and people are in denial so they are dying real fast
- Parents have alot of assumptions. Assumptions that education is really free , assumptions that they should really not play a part in any part called education
- Parents are negligent (very interesting)
- The issue of teachers being in one place for ever. They taught your grandparent, then your parent then you....their insults tend to be personal
(my ears are all up)
- There are generally no new ideas. The lessons we learnt are those which our children are learning even now. its like its stuck in the mind of the teacher.Lessons become too boring for students. There is no variety, no new thing. The people in town are better of because they have technology....but really is this true?
- And finally there is corruption. Corruption? how does this fit into children not performing?

Because time was running out , i promised to come back. This time we are going to be finding solutions to educational problems in the area. Bill Clinton put it very well when he stated that the price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change. 

The people here are leaders from the entire sub-location. The message is out there that meaningful conversations must happen. We have set the ball rolling. We must challenge the current wisdom, challenge our way of doing things because if we don't we will have the same old results. 

SOLUTIONS ARE NOT OUT THERE THEY ARE HERE WITHIN US. 

written by EMILY MWANGI

#uwezo learning assessments

# American friends of Kenya

I AM because YOU ARE

Someone once told me, I am, because You are. And it got me thinking, who am I? if i will affect people by simply being myself, what kind of an example am I? Will someone be better because they knew me, knew us?

And thus my mind is taken back to this week. The invitation of diversity into one room. 47 counties represented under one roof by people who love what they do, people who make others become ,because their work is the community. Community ....a very strong word. And i am awed because this difference is what makes us who we are. Kenyan to the very core. Different tribes, ages, colours, sizes and the richness of diverse experience. I am having a moment....

We are here, all of us, to have meaningful conversations on topics that will bring change to our communities. Our aim is to have people not only talk about children learning , not only ask themselves the fundamental question of are our children learning , but motivate them to take action. 

They will become because we are, because we have accepted the call to go into the world and make a difference. In itself this group of people is a community. A community that has been empowered to become. We have all pulled together for a united cause, and you can be assured that the change we want to bring will be greater than us, greater than what just one individual can achieve on their own. It will require input. Will require contribution of thought and commitment to effort. It requires people like you and me to become so that others can be. 

We have a purpose, a mission by the end of the day. That our actions will inspire others to dream more, learn more , do more and be more because we have accepted to be more. Put our differences aside and decided to make a difference in our world.

WE ARE BECAUSE YOU ARE

.......SO WHAT HAVE YOU CHOSEN TO BE

.........LET WHO YOU ARE BE THE CATALYST THAT CHANGES THE WORLD.

TOO CLOSE TO THE MIRROR

I love story telling so I am going to begin with one. from Aesops fables...

Æsop. (Sixth century B.C.)  Fables.

The Young Thief and His Mother

A YOUNG Man had been caught in a daring act of theft and had been condemned to be executed for it. He expressed his desire to see his Mother, and to speak with her before he was led to execution, and of course this was granted. When his Mother came to him he said: “I want to whisper to you,” and when she brought her ear near him, he nearly bit it off. All the bystanders were horrified, and asked him what he could mean by such brutal and inhuman conduct. “It is to punish her,” he said. “When I was young I began with stealing little things, and brought them home to Mother. Instead of rebuking and punishing me, she laughed and said: ‘It will not be noticed.’ It is because of her that I am here today.”	1
“He is right, woman,” said the Priest: the Lord hath said: “TRAIN UP A CHILD IN THE WAY HE SHOULD GO; AND WHEN HE IS OLD HE WILL NOT DEPART THEREFROM.”

Today we had one of those experiences that first reminds you of the story above and then  you stop and think ...okay...wow...people actually still think like this in real life? And then i remembered a song we once sang somewhere. " I am too close to the mirror...? I suppose in a big way that line has stuck to my mind. Every time i cant seem to have a direction I step back and take a look at my thinking.

So there is this mom concerned that her child is sweeping a class...(from how it was described i noted with concern it might have been a punishment). However she did not stop there and went on to rant and rave that her child was made to sweep, clean and explained that her child even at home cannot do such a thing and it is a show of abuse. OKAY......STOP!!!how old is this child.......9 YEARS.....CASE CLOSED. And my oh my was she angry at the teacher and the school to the point of annoying all of us seated there...

9 years old should know how to at least pick a broom up or remove a cup from the table ...NOT this child i tell you. Not this one. But as a matter of concern how many parents (Mother's we top the chart on this one) do we actually baby our children to the point that they cannot or will not do anything for themselves...? I am especially concerned that it spills over into our school system. We don't like to be told that our children need correction, we don't like them to be corrected, we don't want to correct them because they are "babies" and then when disaster strikes we are quick to cry that our child does not listen...

We have a saying here..(translated from Swahili) "Whoever is not taught by the mother will be taught by the world"

I believe that a child until they are of a certain age will project their parents thinking onto the rest of the world. We need to be careful. Are we too close to the mirror that we see with a distorted view? Will we be the kind of parents who paint a bad picture of everyone else then expect that this children will fit into the society some day, will be able to handle situations that come their way? We don't claim to be perfect , but the day those little feet know how to walk a level of independence settles in. What do we want them to see of the world?

It is wrong to victimize a child. It is even worse to give a child a punishment they don't deserve and don't understand, but denying them the opportunity to learn a skill that will be useful in the future is wrong on many levels. This children will not have us fighting their battles all the time. In our absence will they stand the test?

i will leave you with Solomon’s advice to parents is to “train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6).

OF PUPPETS, BROKEN POTS, FLAWS AND THINGS IN BETWEEN

Our audience is mainly made up of children from the ages of 8 to perhaps 16. Interesting combination of both boys and girls. Yesterday we invited the puppets into the classroom and kids took off. it was perhaps one of the most entertaining segment i'd had all day. Eventually after learning that hand puppets don't actually talk to you and they don't in fact bite we had almost every one in a class of 70 decide they wanted to stand in front of the class, sing , recite poems and give us stories. I was not surprised that even the usually very shy ones had something to say while they simply opt to be silent.

Today however the crowd was a little more older and mature. We did the broken pot again. There is simply something about that story. The water bearer knew all along that one of the pots was broken and even went to the point of planting flower seeds along its path so that whenever they came back from the river, it would water the seeds. The final point hit the nail on the head...." Each of us has our own unique flaws. We are all cracked pots, but its the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. We've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them. There's alot of good out there.

We asked the kids  to write a letter to their future children. i want to write out a bit of what they wrote...
1) My dear children, I am writing this letter when i am 13 years old. I am telling you that when i was in lower classes, i used to eat papers and throw them at the teacher. Please do not do this because the teacher used to be very sad

2) My dear lovely children, i want you to know that i am a lazy person in my home and in class. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be good. I am writing from your past to you and i wish you get this letter

3)I want to tell you my dear future children that i was busy watching television in my home and i was always the last in class. I want to tell you that you should be reading all the time in the class and outside so that you have good marks.

I wondered to myself, if they know so much about their flaws and would in fact advice their future children not to be like them, why don't they then change now? What is holding them back?
THEN ...i looked into their background. Maybe we have looked so much into what we don't have that we don't see what we can be.
INSPIRE NYERI KENYA

When story telling INSPIRES

Storytelling takes you on a journey that inspires you to learn about yourself and the world around you. It reflects social values in a culture that motivate people in their pursuit of a meaningful life. The oral tradition of storytelling makes it possible for a culture to pass knowledge, history, and experiences from one generation to the next. Since humanity first walked the earth, they have told stories as a way to shape our existence..maybe that is why i look forward to our story telling sessions every week.



There is a beauty in the keen faces of children as they follow your every move. React when you do and even sing along and repeat after you. The purpose.....cultivate the love for both reading and story telling. 
There is a little boy who really touched our hearts the other day. We had just finished telling the story of the little engine that could. Its an old story that helps to teach about not giving up and specifically that it is okay to ask for help. We had given the kids (all 70 of them) little engines to colour and some extra work for home work. Then i noticed this little boy looking all depressed and inquired as to why.
Then the little boy told me," teacher if you give me this work i will not do it because i don't have crayons. Can you kindly give me crayons because my mother cannot afford to buy them for me. Every money she has, she has to utilize it for our home use." You said it was okay to ask for help. I am asking for help."
Yes i gave him the box of 10 crayons. It was the best feeling ive had in a while, when what you teach is practical and has impact. When it INSPIRES.
That is what our stories do. They INSPIRE. We may no longer have fire side places where we sit round our elders and listen to ancient wisdom but we can revive an art that will help our children grow up morally correct.

"You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes thier blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift." - Erin Morgenstern

WHY WHAT WE SAY MATTERS

We take great pride in what we do. We teach children based on leadership habits. Yesterday we were teaching a rather important lesson. The question was very simple...what do you see when you look at your self? Towards this end we decided to open the topic with the illustration of the Japanese way of repairing broken pots where they use gold dust glue. The pot comes out looking amazing at the end of day.
Then we quickly moved to the story of the water bearer which i have posted here on a previous blog. it is basically a story about our imperfections. It talks about a pot which hated itself for having a crack. It was so focused on this crack that it failed to see the flowers on its side of the path that it had watered for two years.
We are not perfect. Most of the children we handle come from backgrounds that would make one blush in protest when they count their blessings. There are homes where anger and resentment are the order of the day. There are homes where a child is a bread winner before they are 10 years old. There are homes without parents only grandparents. There are homes where mothers and daughters are victimized constantly that they have to suppress who they really are. There are homes where poverty is so strong it comes with brothers. And yet, in spite of all this, this children will brave the morning cold in pursuit of an education.
However we have to step in and remind them that they have value. They can believe in their dreams. That we have imperfect people who have beaten all odds to come out on top. That there are flowers on your side of the path if you can only look. But we found that even for them its hard to recognize any good in themselves. And so our assignment for the week was set. 7 days of writing something nice. Seven days in which a child is required to affirm themselves. To dig deep and find that which is of value to them.

                                (a class of children with various learning disabilities using tablets)
of particular importance to me, is that as parents we really need to start telling our children that there is good in them, such that at a moments notice they can find the strength in who they are. Before they ever see the world for what it is, this precious little ones will learn it from somebody else's view point. What are we telling them?

THE CRACKED POT

I have a story. The story is about boys and girls who have learnt how to run the race without giving up. This are boys and girls forced by circumstances to be on their own and have ended up being in a children's home.

 But you have all heard the story countless times. Told by fire places, on roadsides, in churches in motivational seminars. But today my story is different. It is the story is one of a cracked pot. Cracked by the society, cracked by wrong choices, cracked by individuals. 

I would like you to stop by for a moment and read this. Let it inspire you to do something. To make a change. To make a positive impact one cracked pot at time. You may not seal the crack but .........

Once upon a time there was a water bearer in a small village who owned two large pots. Each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half-full.

 For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to the house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. However the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure it spoke to the water bearer one day by the

stream. “I am ashamed of myself because of this crack in my side which causes water to leak out all the way to your house”. The bearer looked at the pot and said, “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?” This is because I have always known about your flaw, and planted flower seeds on your side, and every day while we walk back, you have watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace my house.

I hope you have taken a minute to read this. Now take a minute to think of yourself and after that think of all this children out there who need a person like you and me who can motivate them to be better people. I have gone out I have seen, after seeing I did.

 

 I have discovered each one including myself has his own unique flaw. I am a cracked pot and so are you. But it is this cracks and flaws that make our lives together so veryinteresting and rewarding. You just need to take each person for what they are, look beyond them to what they can become. Then use whatever you have to touch the life of that child/person and motivate them into doing the best they can.

 

 You have seen my face. i represent many. You have known my type.

I am a cracked pot. But i have not lost my hope nor given up my life because in the end the decision is mine to make my world a better place. 

Maybe you are out there, i dont know and you would like to know me, be my inspiration, be a part of the many reasons i  need to look forward to tomorrow.