Thankful to Franny for Sending Me This Video on a Sunday Night Before a Challenging Week (especially as we work with @Trevornoah's BORN A CRIME)

A year ago I listened to Trevor Noah's Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood on a visit to my parents in Syracuse. At the time, I remember cursing myself that I went audio on this book, because I wanted to pull over the car and take notes, to dog-ear pages, and to highlight sections for work with teachers and young people. 

Soon after, I learned it was being adapted to young readers and waited for a reason to pull it into a course. Well, Fairfield University offered me an undergraduate course, a beginning class for Exploring Education and I knew I wanted to continue doing the in-school service work with wonderful teachers across southern Connecticut.

I added it to my courses this semester. 

I know that if I am going to teach a book, I am going to work with the paper copy. I am so glad I did this and look forward to conversations over the next few weeks with graduate students, undergraduates, teachers, and sophomores in high school. 

I've never been to Africa and have commonly said, throughout my life, Africa has come to me. I've been working with and for Hoops4Hope since my 20s (love my cousin Mark), teaching Things Fall Apart, Waiting for the Rain, and Cry the Beloved Country for a long time, and of course dedicated my academic life to working with young men relocated to the United States from all over Africa - from nations with different histories, different politics, different conflicts, but a common denominator: European imperialism and colonialism.

I've also dedicated my life to work in K-12 schools, particularly those that serve the heterogeneity of our world. Trevor Noah's book is a fantastic edition to all of this,

• his humor and poignant insight are unmatched,
• the story is remarkable (as Jason Reynolds points out),
• the complicated and vicious race relations in S. Africa parallel the same ones in the United States - a result of colonialism and imperialism (and I am glad he makes the point about Nazi Germany versus Germany today. We Must Teach History),
• kids (heck, even me) love the impish childhood,
• the message is spot on: education + reflection + questioning + critical thinking = knowledge
• it is a story that vaults the globe forward, and not backwards like some are doing in today's worl. Hate is hate is hate. Ignorance is ignorance is ignorance.

Last night, I was signing off my life for another day when Franny Bitman of Greenwich High School shared a video she found while looking for data and knowledge about Ukraine for her own sanity and the students she teaches. I'll take the coincidence that it brought her to a video about Ubuntu. I'm forever an optimistic, I'm in favor of democracy and human togetherness, and I encourage all of us to be more empathetic, caring, giving, and loving - it's the only way.