Chapter 8

Creative Connector:

“In the modern age, we have come to understand our own selves as composites, often contradictory, even internally incompatible. We have understood that each of us is many different people…the 19^th century concept of integrated self has been replaced by the jostling crowd of “I”s. Salmon Rushdie

I think that this is a great point of the book, where Howard is saying the problems that we are facing is not just a “white” problem. This quote is insightful into the diverse population of India which in many ways emerging to be a world power. The problem that we are facing within our schools needs to be tackled by anyone that has their hands in the school systems. Schools and communities are our unique opportunity to change the process, of which students are taught, the feelings students have about themselves, the knowledge the students take away from the classroom, the lifelong skills and tools. In this calling we have the ability to be the catalysts for change, we have the opportunity to connect and make hundreds if not thousands of children better human beings that will be positively functioning members of the community around them. If we can “fill the buckets” of our students, they will begin to “fill the bucket of the communities. In a sense I think that the true economic, social and governmental reform begins with the schools, and with the students that fill them. This idea of “I” is obviously crippling to the teaching community, as well as the larger community as a whole. Beginning to inhabit multicultural spaces as a community, not simply just existing, will be a more rewarding life for us all.

Essence Extractor: vision, healing, positive change