So, What Can We Do? PLACE in Action at Whitney Plantation

*Originally published on 12/16/2016 on www.pblpath.com/blog

 
“What religion do you observe?”

I knew it was a loaded question and that my answer could make or break the trajectory of the conversation.

“Well…”

I paused. I didn’t want to deter the now young man whom I had taught in high school. I wanted to build upon the connection we just made at the Wall of Honor over a selfie. 
 

And who doesn’t love a selfie? These kinds of questions being posed midway through a tour of a plantation with a focus on the slave experience signaled that some level of introspection was occurring, and he needed a thought partner.  I was honored, thinking to myself, “Questions like his give my life purpose!”

“…I believe in the universality of one creator and that at the core, major religions have one thing in common – love.”

I glanced his way to see if that landed well and quickly added “…BUT I was raised Baptist and Catholic, so what’s up?”

“I’m mad Ms. Momo!  I don’t understand why we didn’t learn this in school. I’m REALLY mad at my people for insisting on maintaining their belief in religion! Religion that’s STILL being used to hold us down!”

Without hesitation, he divulged his worries, explaining why and how he has decided to become a teacher. His undergraduate coursework connected him to the Whitney Plantation tour.

You see, there’s a point in the tour where Dr. Seck, the Director of Research for the Whitney Plantation, described to us the process of re-naming the human property when they arrived at the plantations.  Religion, names, and families were all stripped from the enslaved Africans whilst their skills, traditions, and talents were exploited and replaced with forced Christianity and manipulated Biblical scriptures, which slaves were not even allowed to read.  Imagine a life where being caught with a pencil could mean losing your hand at the chopping block!  THIS is how you debilitate a people – destroy their families and terminate their education.  Bringing awareness to the importance of family and education is a pillar of the Whitney Plantation’s mission. 

The young man, my former student, was on to something.  His next question let me know that he meant business, “So what can WE do? How do I change my people’s minds?”

Eureka!  This is the purpose of Place Based Learning!  This is the reason why students must be immersed in the PLACE to truly encourage the ways of knowing and to arrive at this purpose-driven inquiry in a culturally relevant way. Our conversation turned into comparisons of slavery to more contemporary issues and the many forms of activism that we all can take on as we traverse day to day. 

All of the inquiry we see here could quite possibly have evolved in a traditional textbook learning experience of slavery…perhaps.  Yet to actually experience the place where slavery occurred and to read and hear the narratives, the true stories from the point of view of the enslaved Africans themselves; this is the power of PLACE, the value of authentic community partnerships!  We don’t have to imagine the depth of inquiry. The young man’s questions speak it loudly.

Because I’m a math teacher at heart, geometrically speaking, a place is a particular point in time and space; place is also a portion of space available or being used by someone.  In our community, one point in time and space has been preserved for our exploration and learning – the Whitney Plantation.
What places have stories to share in your community? 

How will you use these spaces to facilitate learning experiences for your students? 

What is there to be taught that your students “are not learning in school”?
We’d love to hear from you!  Tweet us @PBLPath, connect with us on Instagram @iDoSchool and stay tuned for more of the purposeful work being done in partnership with the Whitney Plantation! 

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