I remember, we had just been doing something else. I think it may have been the day we took our mid-term and named/described everyone in our class...and Bobby asked if anyone was finished and a few guys that were went to help her with what she needed. Little did we know! As we were finishing our mid-term, meanwhile..those boys were in the kitchen slicing and peeling strange fruit. When they brought it out, I was so confused! Mark, Trey and Antonio were like waitors that came to each student and offered us whatever it was they were "serving". In this case, it was all things I had never heard of before. One of the fruits was called a "paw paw". That sounded like a Southern nickname for a grandfather. Anyway, as my classmates around me were saying "No thank you", or smelling their papertowels suspicious before barely licking whatever was occupying them, I wondered "WHY?". It was not the first (or last) time I would secretly ask myself "How in the WORLD does this connect to education?!" (no offense, Bobby :). But of course, lo and behold, like ALWAYS, by the end of the activity I was thinking "Ohhhhhhh" and swallowing my earlier doubts (along with weird fruit!).
During the offering period, when the boys were coming around, I found myself wanting to say no to some things. However, I stopped myself before I could, and I made a point to try everything. \I have run into some pretty strange food habits, especially at Berea (a Brazilian friend of mine here eats pizza with ketchup and mayonnaise! eew!), and even though I am tempted to make gross faces when I hear them, and run as far away as I can, I don't. I am a strong believer that "You can't judge it until you try it first" (which sometimes leads to some pretty painful experiences...see below!, and you know what? that's okay!) I recently realized though that
this philosophy extends beyond food, but, ah yes, of course-even to my future students.There will be diversity in my classes. Just like the different fruits we encountered this day in class...there were the ones with huge seeds that look like bugs as Mark pointed out (top right), there are the slimy, gooey, spitty ones that sort of are like the fruit version of okra (top left)...etc. These are some pretty weird fruit, in their names, textures, tastes, appearances. Is this not the same with some people? But, I need to be careful. Instead of saying "weird", or "strange", the correct word to use is "different". I have no idea where I will be teaching. I have had some thoughts about going international, and I very well may. If I do, and even if I don't, I know I will encounter some form of diversity in my classroom, whether physically or internally. When that happens, I need to be prepared to handle it and facilitate a healthy, supportive environment instead of not noticing if/when some judgment is going on.
My fruit philosophy about trying it first, is sort of like the "Don't judge someone until you walke a mile in their shoes" mindset. And the idea is that after you do, there won't be the desire to judge them anyway. I want to teach my students that first of all, they owe it to whomever they are considering judging because they are different, to learn about that difference first and foremost. After they sufficiently and extensively become educated about how someone is different from them, then they STILL don't have legitimate grounds to judge them. Perhaps then there could be an "agree to disgree" point, or an acceptance, just like me and the squishy slimy food I wasn't a huge fan of.
I will try teach that judgment and discrimination is almost always ignorant and based on faulty, empty stereotypes. I have already thought of some possible ways to teach this (see Obama Wal-mart post). I want to urge my students to stretch, to go outside their comfort zone, not just in activities where they challenge their own brain to think and be creative, but also when interacting with other people. That is so key to way beyond my class. These are "life lesson" sort of things that are not included in the mandatory curriculum, but I feel are so much more crucial to be taught (and learned).
