Practices of Freedom and Justice: A Charge to Keep

The speaker of this week's class presentation was Ms. Kimberly Worthy. She is a renowned educator, who's received "Teacher of the Year" awards at every school she's been to. Her topic for this week was "Practices of Freedom and Justice: A Charge to Keep" During this lecture, Ms. Worthy discussed the importance of teaching, as well as the various ways teaching is executed. She compared the way that students are taught in American schools with the way African students are taught. In America, we are taught information in a compartmentalized fashion, grouping and learning information by subjects. African students are taught information collectively, at the same time.

African students learn how everything is connected, and it's importance in society as a whole. African students seem more eager to learn than American students, because they understand how much of a privilege the opportunity to receive an education is. Another thing taught in African classrooms, is the importance of culture. In America, we learn very little about our own people in Africa. One of the reasons there is a disconnect between African-Americans and Africa is because of ignorance. Our school books contain very little of our heritage and culture.

I thoroughly enjoyed this class lecture, and it made me realize that our way may not necessarily be the best way. I believe that if we were taught similarly to how African students are taught, collectively we would be able to grasp real-world concepts and apply the knowledge we gain to tasks in our everyday lives. It also made me realize how much we as African-Americans take for granted. We should want to know more about our history, and take the steps necessary to make that a reality.