Thoughts from Class- April 28, 2020

How do we incorporate and honor what we call radical imagination of youth or childhood theorization in learning environments?

I think what we can do is introduce ideas and be honest with youth and children that we are working with in order to be in an environment that honors their own thoughts. Not necessarily calling students out if they do something that is based in that coloristic way of thinking but bringing up conversations in simple terms that they can understand. Children are very aware of what is right and what is wrong and being able to draw on that and use experiences that they are familiar with and can talk about.

It is important to allow them their own freedom by providing them agency so that they are able to ask these questions and be in a space where these questions are able to be answered and talked about.

Teachers need to increase their own sense of play in order to instill a sense of play in children. Common childhood experiences are very important to building your own identity and sharing experiences within your community of people. Why are we not allowing children to play? What is the problem with allowing children to be more in their own head and imaginative? That is where creativity is born and that is what we as educators want, right? So we must allow students to play, it seems crazy that we don't allow them to be free in their educational experience and settings. We force them into what we think is best when that generally hinders their creativity.

It is important to allow their own childhood experiences to be IN (yes. Bring in all the things that make you as the educator uncomfortable) the classroom rather than expect students to be more adult with the power dynamics. Including their diversity, inequalities, race, socio-economic status, culture, food, language, experiences.