Changing My Life to Change the World, or; Me, Today

"Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but... life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves." - Gabriel García Márquez

Over the last twenty years I have been concerned with writing a script for a new world, and helping others write their own. I concentrated on our collective journey, built on interdependence and deliberately focused on changing the world. Important successes came from my efforts, and transformation has occurred. Today, I know I changed the world.

About six months ago I undertook a process of deep self-examination designed to enhance my professional development. However, it quickly became apparent that this process was about my personal growth, as well.

Me, fueled by bravado, ego, and world-focus.
Oh, those ol' days seem so faraway, and yet so close!

My career has occurred during a rich period of social action in the United States, one when institutional efforts were embodied in programs like AmeriCorps and service learning, and supported by large foundations, politicians, and well-established national nonprofits and international nongovernmental organizations. While being involved in all that process, I frequently heard Gandhi's matra, "We need to be the change we wish to see in the world." Today, after 20 years in, I am beginning to understand it.

All this time I've focused on superficial changes in my own life reflecting my philosophy about the roles of young people throughout society. I have watched my language and honed my behaviors; I have rallied for systems changes and challenged peer apathy. The entire time, though, while leading workshops focused on social change and youth alienation, I have neglected to address the oppression I faced as a young person and have continued to face as an adult. I have owned my whiteness, my maleness, my many privileges afforded by a predominate culture that affects and predicts and seemingly necessitates hatred. However, until six months ago, I hadn't faced the inabilities that have hampered my own successful living today.

So for the last six months I've been doing this work. I have named the situations, people, circumstances, and other realities that challenged me. I have drilled into my own psyche to drag out some painful memories, and come to face some lasting legacies. Old connections have been severed or transformed; new wire has been laid, and different connections have been made. Facing the truth of pain, I have sought to draw out new meaning and purpose in my movements, and have learned a lot. I have faced a lot, and all of it has made me who I have been, and who I am. It will continue to form my conception of me, too, to some extent.

This has been a radical journey for me, one in which I've been able to take ownership of my own path, recognizing where I've come from, and carefully begin laying the stones ahead of me, one at a time. It's been a little precarious, and as my close friends and family know, I've struggled a bit. They have been there to support me through this time though, and I have ceaseless gratitude for their generosity.

Me with a partner during an exercise at a recent retreat
I attended. Participating- not facilitating- events like these
over the last several months has been good for me.

Right now I do not have absolute certainty about where my path will lead me. However, instead of forcing myself to lay a narrow path, I'm looking at a wide open plain of opportunity. I am more committed than ever to living another part of the vision of the Mahatma, who also said, “My life is my message.”

Today, I get what that means for me. I believe that we all must DO SOMETHING, only now I'm doing it in a different way: I'm changing my own life to change the world. I know that as I emerge from this growth space I am entering the playing field from a new frame, a new perspective. Facing myself has been one of the most challenging experiences of my life. Have you met you, today? When the time is right, you will. In the meantime, I've enjoyed sharing a little about me - thanks for reading.

Addendum: Reflecting on this post, I came across a Thoreau quote where he said, "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." That is what this recent body of my personal work has been, putting foundations down. From here, I will continue to build, rebuild, and evolve my castle to the next big thing!

NEW: SoundOut Student Voice Curriculum

The SoundOut Student Voice Curriculum is a major departure from my past efforts to promote Meaningful Student Involvement. For almost a decade I've worked exclusively in situational attempts to train students and provide professional development opportunities for educators, whilst daydreaming of the possibilities of infiltrating the school system. That is to say, I have contracted extensively with districts and state/provincial education agencies... but none has gone so deep as this new curriculum.

Starting today I'm making the curriculum widely available for purchase and usage. A variety of schools have used it in the past, including Colfax High School, Friday Harbor High School, Langley Middle School, Secondary Academy for Success, Wishkah Valley High School, Douay Matyrs School, Capitol High School, and Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. Organizations ranging from the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to the New York State Secondary Student Support Office to the Human Services Coalition of Miami/Dade County have used it. However, I haven't made it widely available until now.

Today marks the official launch of this exciting curriculum. Join me by sharing the news! And learn more at http://www.soundout.org/curriculum.html 

I Am An Abetting Radical

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. And when I ask why they have no food, they call me a Communist." - Brazilian bishop Helder Camara

I am a default questioner. I think that starting at a young age I took it upon myself to question and examine and critique and analyze life, situations, assumptions, even other questions, not as a defense mechanism or routine, but as a default, a way of being, a practice that acknowledges the corners of my soul that are always asking, "Why?" It's a childlike part of me that continues to sustain me.

Why is it that when I ask adults why they don't share society with youth, they call me a radical?

Student Voice in Child-Friendly Schools

Several years ago UNICEF took off on a journey to create child-friendly schools around the world. Their efforts included creating a comprehensive manual and conducting evaluations of so-named environments around the world. However, in their analysis of what created a child-friendly school, UNICEF has routinely neglected to name student voice as an essential component.

For those of you familiar with my work, you'll know that I would take that engagement of student voice further down the line and propose that to be truly committed to child-friendly schools would be to practice Meaningful Student Involvement throughout the education system. I have called out the child-friendly environments movement before for this type of neglect, and this is an extension of my concern.