9/27 - Class Recap

Here's the class picture with Jordan Thierry at the end of our discussion today!

Hello everyone,

What a great day in Diversity and Social Justice! We had an awesome Socratic Seminar. Here's what happened in class today:

Learning Targets Addressed:

I can communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.

I can explain the process of change and continuity in a society, place, or region.

Soundtrack: "Space Jam" by Quad City DJs. Selected for today because our guest speaker, Jordan Thierry, played basketball in his documentary with his dad! Lyrics here.

AGENDA 9/27/17:
Check In/Review Agreements
Socratic Seminar
Q and A with Jordan

Homework: Read the blog! Make sure you are up to date with all assignments/readings in class!
----
Check In/Review Agreements: At the beginning of class, we went over the Courageous Conversations Agreements to set the stage for our discussion about The Black Fatherhood Project and the Ta-Nehisi Coates article in the Atlantic.

Socratic Seminar: This was so cool! Thank you so much for participating and for welcoming Jordan into the discussion circle! We appreciate your willingness to adapt to the structure today. Here is the Socratic Seminar model that we used in class:

Google Drive - Socratic Seminar Pilot/Co-Pilot Model

As a part of this model, we started with students who had read sections 1, 2, or 3 in The Atlantic reading, then had the other members of the small groups be "co-pilots" in the discussion, by helping with sending notes. This was followed by the inside circle being students who read sections 4, 5, and 6, then a final discussion with students who read sections 7, 8, and 9. We only had enough time to have each of the three discussions be about 8 minutes each.

Here are my (Mr. Fritz's) notes from the conversation, by group number, if it helps in remembering what we talked about:

Group 1:
Patriarchy - women as leaders? --> both roles at home
One parent as head of the household
Divorced parents?
Moynihan Report as a product of his time
How does it differ if parent is in prison?
Father lays the law down? --> Not always the case
Different stigmas
Emotional trauma from jail + parent at home now as 2x as much work
Government is not providing enough services

Group 2:
First war on drugs - 1910s to 1980s --> seeing the same things
Nixon and heroine (reference to article), as part of re-election campaign
Jordan: coded language that is used to this day, to identify poor people/drug addicts/black --> tough on crime
80% of crimes are non-violent
Need to break the poverty cycle
Work on the stigma
Free labor with prison inmates
Justification for using black labor has not changed --> society and black criminality
Make time to understand the argument

Group 3:
10 years in Europe is considered a harsh sentence - why are we (U.S.) so harsh on non-violent crime?
Privately owned prisons
Pay under minimum wage
Large corporations --> a form of business to use these incentives
Too much incentive/monetary value within the system
Why is solitary confinement still used to much, then?
Significant portion of inmates with mental health/drug problems
Drug addiction is a social health issue --> prison takes away support structure --> escape oppressive reality
Prison as a traumatic experience
"We need justice!" --> the narrative in the United States as to why such long/harsh prison sentences are needed

All it all, it was a really good conversation and I'm so glad we were able to have Jordan with us to help process these topics. I wish it had been longer, for sure! Thank you to everyone!

Q and A with Jordan: At the end of class, we gave a little time for Q and A with Jordan with a class wide discussion. Many of the questions had to do with how students could effect change in the world and our own communities. These were great questions, for sure. We will definitely continue to investigate this and students will be working on a related project at the end of the semester!

Thanks again for all of your effort, focus, and participation today! We are looking forward to debriefing with you on Friday!