During my reading I felt a strong connection between both the 4Rs youth movement and Young’s Dis/Abilities paper. Both focus on developing critical literacy, though 4Rs is less explicit about this, and social activism in young people, though they have different focuses. Young focuses on dis/abilities and heterosexism whereas the 4Rs approach comes from the side of reconciliation. However, both appear to come to the conclusion that individual identity, safe environment, and meaningful communication are preqrequisites to meaningful social and crucial discourse.

Young focuses on developing the abilities of decoding language and message, connecting language and power, and critical analysis. The 4Rs focus on supporting introspection and self-evaluation in all students, guided and safe conversations, and “third thing”.  

4Rs is an Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth give their perspectives, goals, and approach to reconciliation in Canada and social activism. Such a difficult topic and conversation, but the content of the site alone is an amazing window into the lives young people and how they relate to such serious topics. Beyond that they have a strong focus on platform, tools, leadership, and capacity building in young people that is both powerful and inspiring. Their focus on bridging the gap in reconciliation by developing strong individual identities and ‘connected/strong?’ diversity is a new approach to me.

I enjoyed the iterative and collaborative process that they have been following, especially is they were formed through the coalition of many existing your advocacy groups which formed the bedrock of their organisation. They have a clear and concise path towards there goal, by bringing everyone together on even-footing so that balanced and open discourses can take place amongst any young people. 

They make a point of mention that many schools may not have visible diversity, and yet we must welcome and learn about diversity in every classroom. They’re discussion of privilege and diversity got me thinking about the fact that we all have our own unique positionalities. We have greater and lower levels of privilege in various spheres of our lives, even just by living in a democratic and wealthy country in Canada whatever our experience in this country might be. That said, we are also all lack privilege and have negative experiences as well. Especially in Saskatchewan there can be a disconnect from messages of anti-racism and critical discourse towards our colonially educated students. Through introspection and careful but difficult conversations we can support our students to bridge that disconnect as individuals and together.

This focus on looking inward and calm contemplation as a precursor to cross-cultural connection and critical analysis reminds me of a meditation initiative in California. The school started opening and closing everyday with 12 minutes of unguided meditation (after teaching the skill) in all classrooms. They found a great improvement in classroom management, attendance, and student achievement simply through giving students time to stop and breathe. Giving the space to simply be in their bodies as individuals and feel their own thoughts was apparently powerful in their school experiences.

I’ve been inconsistently dipping my own toes into meditation in the last few years and I definitely find it valuable. Again, it doesn’t always feel important or worthwhile when there’s so much going on, but I’m always happy when I do do it. Personally, I found that just listening the thoughts that arise without immediately assessing and addressing helped untangle my thoughts. Afterwards, I would feel both clearer mentally with a path ahead, but also physically calmer even when I hadn’t realised that stress had keyed me up.

I guess where I’m going with this is that I think many of us are disconnected from ourselves. We often don’t value ourselves as beings of body and spirit but rather solely for our contributions.   In my experience, our society disregards the personal (identity, feelings, beliefs, hopes) in favour of the public (money, beauty, function, service). Its no surprise that when we don’t often consider our own selves as feeling, wishing, and hurting beings that its difficult to authentically do the same to others.

Going forward, I hope to try and integrate these strategies and values into my own practice for both my and my students’ development.