RE: The 31 Sentence Contest
(Did I mention math, clocks, calendars, counting, and all that jazz, to be my weak spots?)
haha! @agmoore2 also said something like that.
Loved the article. I never knew.
I loved the quote! It is perfect for this contest. Thanks for finding it.
When I had a psychological break down, while living in New York, just after Hurrican Katrina, I was invited over to my friend's house after he talked my blubbering, angry, confused self into coming over. There is where I was introduced to John T. G. So many lights were going off that tied back into things I had experienced in the schooling system and why I lacked the skills, supposed to be taught to you during your schooling career, necessary to truly strive in the world of which I was waking up to. He was a teacher I always dreamed of having. His words touched my soul.
I have for the last five years had a another seba (teacher) who stands up to those standards of mine. In this way, I'm blessed.
You've come a long way from the "angry, confused self" you describe post-Katrina! Finding a mentor and teacher is indeed a great blessing. Your experience parallels millions of children oppressed by institutionalized education -forcing children to sit still and stay quiet all day in a hard chair is not my idea of how to teach life skills and prepare our little ones for adulthood. Most kids SEEM to turn out ok with this system, but I'm haunted by photos of Native American children in matching school uniforms sent to boarding schools. Their childhoods were stolen, they were punished for speaking in their native tongue... ok, I stop now. This is too depressing to recall. Back to MEMORY LOSS... story prompt....
I always picked up on that aspect regarding the Indigenous peoples of this land and that of the Afrikans. Things just looked off.