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Time to Organize

Moment like this strike fear into some of our hearts, for others it adds fuel to a fire inside us. The policies that are enacted set a trend and often set into motion the possibility for us to move forward or back; they create a set of circumstances that if not thought of accordingly can create chaos that can lead to the irrational actions of many. I see many fires being started and others being further fueled without the though of repercussions or circumstances of varying degrees. We are seeing an ideology placed forward without the thought of its response in a global scale. I am seeing policy being carried out without thinking of the lasting effects of that it might have on our Globalized World were if we don’t take part in it, THE WORLD DOES NOT CARE! When we decide to isolate ourselves, we fail.

We are in a globalized world where our input or lack of input does not matter because what drives this global economy is investment from government, corporations, and people. How can people be a part of the mixed economic system if they are not able to consume or better yet invest? What will happen if people become afraid of buying and selling because they don’t trust what is happening? Our history teaches us that when we decide not to be a part of the global economic system, systematically the economy falters. A recession is coming and those in power know it and want it because it means profits. It means the further increase of the monopolization of the global economy and the systematic impoverishment of those who can barely afford to be in the global middle class which causes a hushing of the dissent that exists.

There are plenty of fires that are being burned with the intent to be distracted by the chaos but this only means that we need to more openly organize and get ready for what is to come, recession. The stock market is not a tell of the real state of the economy since the algorithm that runs it only recognizes the hope being expressed and sees invest, invest, invest. Yet, the truth is that people are already on the brink of bancruptcy. People are at the brink of unemployment. People are on the brink of getting dropped by the economic system because profits matter more than people do. This country is trying to be ran like a corporation but in the global economy this form of economic system always falters. A MARKET ECONOMY ALWAYS FALTERS!

Preparing to continue

In times of dire possibilities, there is a need to continue even in the sight of possible destruction. I find it interesting that people are questioning their ideals when on the right and white supremacist side of the spectrum there is no question to what they believe. People are saying that it is the end of Neoliberalism without noticing that our Agenda is becoming more Neoliberal to the point of creating a true Market Economy where businesses versus government control the means of production and the market; Profit becomes more important than the People that exist within a Conglomerate since the State is taken over by a Business Model. We have been on this path before and like the past it will lead to dire consequences that will have debilitating results for our economy.

Therefore, I am planning for the future in where there is the possibility of cuts and recession. I am planning for an age where we live of credits to banks and stuck to our jobs that remain limited to growth. I plan for the future where luxuries will be basic necessities and those who cant afford the means of living will be allowed to suffer because they are not doing their part. Job growth will be limited to temp and part time possibilities while profits soar in the every increasing privitized economy.

This can be stopped! This can be averted if those who are moderate, left, socialist, and communist unite just like the right and white supremacist did. People want to put a narrative of white working men and women put Trump in power but it was honestly the destruction of the economy by Neoliberal policies that have been growing in strength over the past few decades lead to this point. The problem is that people have not been educated properly to question the big picture of things and moderate and left politicians have not been courageous enough to educate their base about what is really ailing our system; cronyism and nepotism. They have been unable to educate themselves and others about what is really destroying democracy; a sense of disenfranchisement in a system that is intended to be of the people, by the people, for the people. It has become an Oligarchy that is of the corporations, by the corporations, for the profits that are to be earned

Love Trumps Hate

When we get the unexpected; the reality of what we thought had disappeared but that has reemerged as an illness that intends to destroy US. We can be angry, we can be disappointed but better yet we should feel invigorated to take action. This election has pushed me to think about entering the political arena because I realize that, now more than ever, we have to represent what America really stands for: Hope. The fear tactics will quickly fall apart as those who chose him will see the fault in their decision. They will see that their myopia and single issue political ideology requires deeper thought and proper analysis. Issues in our world are complex and the band-aid, dog whistle politics that have been exhibited in this election remind us of the inequity that exists in our society. It reminds us that we cannot be complacent or think that we have transformed the very reactionary, conservative fabric of the United States over the last few years. This election has shown me that plenty needs to be done to educate and empower our communities to recognize their value and worth; to see their potential to transform the very conditions of their community versus waiting for a savior character to save them from what has been done before. We need to create sustainable coalitions. We need to create sustainable leadership. We need to organize and unite as marginalized communities because now the venonous snake of the Leviathan that had gone underground has come out of its hole in an attempt to counter years of progress that had begun to fix the issues in the communities we live in. This reminds us also that the economic growth has happened in certain places as others have been under attack by the globalized world. They have become victims of a mixed economy that moved so close to a market economy that people protest voted. This reminds us that diversity and acceptance exists in certain areas but in others those are ideals that are limited or nonexistent. Love will trump hate in the end as we seek to find significance in a world that, for now, is a gloomy, blurry future. Welcome to Bush 3.0

Plan, Practice,Reflect and Repeat

Going into the next unit on any curriculum sometimes causes a moment of pause to ask, “Is what I am teaching responsive to the needs of my students?” As I see my students go through things in their daily lives sometimes I feel that what I teach is inadequate to their needs. How can I talk about wealth and power when the systemic inequality (poverty) they live in is a far better project to work on to find solutions to?! Why do the World Wars matter when there is an issue that my students have to deal with on their daily lives?! We try our best to be reflective and responsive to the needs of our young people but at the same time there is a need to teach what can be pertinent to them in the future. There is a want to create hope especially when there is negativity that overwhelms some of them. When the real world and the lessons it is teaching them are not intended to build them up instead break them down. We see and know there is potential the question I ask, are we doing enough to support their growth? Are we doing all we can to give them tools and resources for them to work through what they can?

Join us to continue working on creating Social Justice in our communities

#compton #ucla #youthbuild #ycsc #social justice

I still plenty to learn as an educator but as long as I have a foundation on my pedagogy I can take action

#critical praxis #critical pedagogy #ucla #uclatep

A constant reminder of my pedagogy as well as my life journey....

The act of transforming our community does not only transpire within our classrooms but with servicing the communities that we learn in.

#gysd #gysd2015

It is finally here!!!

2 Days! 2 Murals! 13 Confirmed Workshops! Hundreds of Participants ready to learn and take action in our community! Its never to late to join!

#gysd #ysa

When everything connects...

Months of hard work and dedication,

Come down to a week.

A week where you see,

The fruits of your struggle.

A week where you see,

The bloom of a flower.

A week where you see,

The transformation that you seek.

In this arduous journey,

To implement a plan,

That has been lost and found,

On different occasions,

You seek to complete,

A dream that has been deferred,

But never rendered,

Done.

In our journey,

We find meaning in all we do.

We find significance,

In all the interactions we have had.

Whether our dream is fully fulfilled,

The seed has been planted.

It will be maintained and cultivated.

The sustainability in our work,

Is never ending,

Always growing,

Sometimes tired,

But relentless.

When everything connects,

You smile upon the day.

You see the beauty,

Of the never ending struggle.

To provide our world,

With another set of hands,

With the tools to transform,

Our sacred planet for all of us.

#gysd

lpoeta55

Transformative Education...

We, educators, enter education in most instances with the expectation to be able to “change the World” through the “education” we provide the next generation. We dream that we could be the teacher/s that influenced us to be the educators. Through our education programs we are given the theory, tools, and resources to be able to engage the politics of education but it does not prepare us for it. We cannot be prepared for the politics of education until we experience it. We all want to be RIDAS, as Jeff Duncan-Andrade once wrote, yet we are dealt with the question of how are we going to reach that personal expectation of being the legit teacher we once dreamed of being when we entered the politics of education.

Now, this enters a discourse of recognizing the politics of the school that you are in. Are you in a charter, public or private school? What is the education model and its: mission, objective, message, motto, targets? What is the administration all about? What are other teachers all about? What are you all about? We are taught to be critical of ourselves as educators and question what our ideals are but when we enter our schools we find the question turn to a question of how are we going to fit the politics of the school. There are a number of options to this but ultimately we are searching for ourselves within the politics of the school in that first year. We shift our position within the politics of the school as we begin to transform. As we experience the school and its politics, we begin to transform into teachers that are antagonized, marginalized, befriended, or accepted. These are not the only options but the idea is that we become transformed by the experienced.

We earn a better sense of ourselves as we relate to the school. The young people, they become our source of energy; we become their source of energy as well. We reciprocate our relationship with our school upon our young people whether it is intentional or not. We reciprocate our alienation, our frustration, our hopelessness, as well as our dreams and expectations. We are authentic with our young people even without us knowing it because they feel us. They sense us and we sense them but in most of our schools we choose to negate this feeling and try to push through it without reflecting upon what is going on. For those who have felt this pain before, we suddenly have a flashback to those days of endless struggle as we tried to navigate the politics of education as young people. For those who have never had this feeling, we try to rationalize what is going on as a phase but the reality is that you are slowly (or quickly) burning out, set ablaze, giving up, or trying to find a way out of this maze of emotions. Even those who have experienced this in their childhood, are caught up in the trauma of the past and question whether they are creating the conditions of the past in the present that might effect the future of their pupils.

We have been institutionalized to perceive that education is a right that is granted to us but we negate the long struggle to be able to provide a sort of egalitarian education. Education is a revolutionary act. Based on the politics of your school, of education, and your positionality this enters another discourse of the value of education and what are its means to our society. Education has long been a limited practice in most societies that only those given the privilege have been granted the opportunity. We are living in an age where we have the opportunity to empower all of our population through education yet the education we are providing has become standardized and limited of its authenticity. Transformative education is not standardized nor does it have a formula, it is an ideal that requires engagement in action.

I laugh when people talk or write about transformative education because the ways it is written about it seems so step by step. They make it seem that you can accomplish these possibilities in any academic space no matter the politics of the school or of education. They negate the process that requires critical praxis and a constant internal and external reflection of one’s positionality not only with the aforementioned but also our students. We must include them in this process as we seek to grow and cultivate this transformative education practice at our schools and within our academic spaces. We must be willing to engage our students critically in creating the capacity to transform the World we live in. The teachers who made an impact on us when we were younger were ones who navigate the politics’ and did everything in their power to empower us to create the change they wanted to see in the World. Their teachings made an impact on us and it is that same impact we seek to provide our students. We find our position within the politics’ and work to create the change we want to see in the World.

Education is a revolutionary act. It is a practice that requires the skills of an organizer, counselor, actor, dancer, writer, reader, narrator, CEO, CFO, lawyer, secretary, entrepreneur, assistant, director, producer etc. It is practice that requires plenty to do and accomplish and when we find our way through the politics’, we can finally provide the RIDA education we once dreamed of providing....

Please push back against my narrative since this is the only way we can continue to grow.

#transformativeeducation #UCLATEP

COMPTON YOUTHBUILD IN COLLABORATION WITH YOUTHBUILD CHARTER SCHOOL OF CALIFORNIA AND YOUTH SERVICE AMERICA PRESENT :GYSD COMPTON YOUTH PROJECT APRIL 17TH AND 18TH IN THE CITY OF COMPTON. FOR MORE INFORMATION EMAIL US AT RRODRIGUEZ@YOUTHBUILDCHARTER. ORG. ON APRIL 17TH WE WILL HOLD A SYMPOSIUM REGARDING COMMUNITY ISSUES AND TAKING ACTION AND ON APRIL 18TH (IN COLLABORATION WITH COMPTON INITIATIVE) WILL PAINT AND CLEAN UP OUR COMMUNITY. I HOPE YOU ALL CAN JOIN US!

Update on Civic Engagement In Compton

How can we work to transform our community when there are so many possible approaches to creating this transformation? Our youth contemplate this idea in many different forms through the interactions and conversations that we have. Every week is defined not only by our goals that we have for our course but by the activities that transpire in our community. Each one of the members in this course bring their perspective and knowledge into the conversations that transpire; they ultimately define through their actions the direction of the course as long as it leads to working towards transformation.

Currently we are working on a service project that is to be implemented on April 17th, 2015 in the city of Compton. We are working in outreaching and connecting to community assets at a local, city, and state wide level to support our goal of having 750 youth from throughout Southern California, in particular the Compton, Watts-Willowbrook area, to engage in a service project that works to engage in the work of transforming the community. The question that arises constantly is the why and how. Our youth have defined the theme of the service project as, "Speak Up and Speak Out: Speaking on Realities", with the mission to, "Unify and engage the youth to speak up in their individual communities and their voice be heard to make a change!" As of now, they want this project to be informative but also fun; a day filled with activities and workshops that address issues in not only our community but areas that have a common struggle.

We have had discussion about issues but civic engagement is not just about speaking, it is about about action and learning how to address these issues. It is about learning about the socio-political process of engaging and learning to work within and outside of our political system to address issues. Whether it is meeting with elected officials or community programs; with students from UCLA to community organizations willing to support our course goals. Civic Engagement is a process of learning and becoming the leaders of our community and together we expect to create the transformation we want to see in the world.

This upcoming April 17th, 2015 from 10-3pm youth from Southern California will be invited to join our group of youth leaders to do a service project around the theme of community voice and speaking up and out about issues in their community.

As they shared their ideas with one another this week I saw in them a little bit of fear but also excitement to see the possibility to make a lasting impact in their community. They had many ideas on their mind and to see them put on paper and for others to agree to their ideas made them realize the potential to make history.

This was the start and on January 30th these young leaders will meet again to begin creating the project they plan to implement. Feel free to contact me at [email protected] if you would like to support our organizing efforts.

Compton YouthBuild Civic Engagement

In the upcoming weeks, my civic engagement course will be organizing for an event on April 17th, 2015. As of now all we know is that it will include youth voice and community power but what does this mean? The youth in the course will create a community project that will serve over 750 youth throughout Los Angeles. The purpose of this project is to inform the youth in our community that we have a common struggle. The question is what this project will look like. Therefore, we will be holding an organizing meeting on January 16th to see what we can do to inform our community about what we (as youth) think would benefit our community.

Year Two: Wonder what to do...

I enter this year with critical hope!

A clear understanding of the expectations placed upon me!

Expectations reciprocated by the youth who know me!

Expectations I intend to maintain as well...

I enter this year with clear goals and objectives that will require me to think again about how I approach teaching in a liberating way. I was told in my program that I need to coach rather than encounter our youth. But the reality is I have to encounter our youth in order to engage them in the work of organizing and learning; I cannot just let them be but go with them along this dream, this struggle.

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