So, what can WE do? PLACE in action at Whitney Plantation

So, what can WE do? PLACE in action at Whitney Plantation
Shared by Sissy Stephens

Charity Moran Parsons, Ed.S., teacher, school development coach, and educational consultant wrote this reflection after a visit to Whitney Plantation. While there, she had a discussion with a former student.

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.

Her website can be found at: https://www.idoschool.com/blank