Identity and Learning Make Our World Better
3/8/2025
Over the past several months, I’ve been doing a deep dive into Gholdy Muhammed’s book Unearthing Joy. In the book she offers a wonderful history of education in African American culture. Part of this history includes the idea that historically (which trace back to the days of slavery, little did I know) these learning communities called their learning “pursuits” rather than “objectives.”
I love that idea of “pursuits.” It implies that you are constantly learning, constantly going after something new. It never ends. And it’s not tied to the drudgery of the testing culture that words like “skills” and “objectives” permeate.
Muhammed identifies four pursuits from her research: identity, skills, intellect, and criticality. She adds her own fifth pursuit: joy.
I’ve been blessed to work with an amazing group of theatre educators in a national PLC over the past year, as we’ve worked to improve our practice while using the pursuits as a basis. The work is messy (as is any work in education), but so rewarding.
I’ll spend some time sharing my thoughts on each of the pursuits over the next several posts. But today I want to start with identity.
That word can feel highly politicized. But at the root of it, identity is all about how one’s lived experiences connect to the task at hand. Whether it’s an assignment in class, planning meals for your family, or deciding how to spend your money, who we are impacts how we live each moment of our lives. Too often in learning, we focus on skills (the next pursuit I’ll write about) without thinking about why students should even care in the first place. Other than “it’s on the test”, why should anyone care?
This is why I love working with words and working in the theatre. Often my actors are playing roles that are not much like them at all. I even have one actor that is a gentle soul but plays evil people REALLY WELL! How is it then, that these actors can embody the characters truthfully?
Identity.
No, that gentle soul is not really evil at heart! But by crafting a way to find some connection to the character, the actor is able to play the role honestly and tell the story truthfully. Once they use their identity to connect to the play, life begins to be injected into the script, and the fun of creating theatre begins.
I recently worked on #Censored, a one-act play about that very topic, with a wonderful group of high school students. While student performers said they were against censorship, most of them were playing characters who were in favor of some form of it. In order to help them play the characters honestly, we began talking about their own lived experiences. And through those discussions they realized that censorship comes in many forms, and many of them discovered that they supported various forms of censorship. Once we got to that point in the process, it was an easy shift for them to embody the characters they played.
And so it is with writing. I recently worked with a client who was writing an admissions essay for a prestigious program. He had a lot of great ideas on what he wanted to say, but struggled with how to get it all across clearly and succinctly. Our meetings focused on talking about the stories that he wanted to tell. Not only did I get to know more about him, but he began learning about himself and what he wanted to say through our conversations. By focusing on who he was and his lived experiences, we were using identity to shape a narrative that helped him get into the program!
So identity is not just the political rhetoric that we hear so often from our elected officials. Identity is about who you are and your own lived experiences. It influences every choice we make, whether we realize it or not. But it also impacts everyone else. And ignoring others’ identities can lead to generalization and stereotypes, which only lead to harm to our world. Once we can accept that identity is at the core of who we are and everything we do, understanding how to use that to make a positive difference in our world becomes easier to do!
Can't I Just Use AI?
11/27/2024
It has been awhile since I wrote in this space, but as we head into the holiday season, I wanted to reflect on the work that I have been doing and share some thoughts with you.
When I tell people that I do writing consulting as a small business, I get asked why? Is there really a market for it? What’s the purpose? Why not just use ChatGPT?
In short, there IS a market for writing consultants. AI may be here to stay, but it is not the magic formula for sharing YOUR own ideas and thoughts. And writing is about sharing who you are with a specific audience. A computer is not an audience, nor can it really make your own personal voice stand out.
The process of collaborating on a piece of writing involves something that will never go away: interpersonal communication. In order for me to work with my clients to the best of my ability, we have to talk and get to know each other. That process provides an exercise for the client in identifying exactly who they are. In fact, often the client makes discoveries about themselves as they go through the process. To be sure, we aren’t healing any traumas during our sessions, but we are creating pieces that clearly communicate the writer’s authentic self.
And AI isn’t there yet.
Why is writing so important?
8/16/2024
We write every single day. Be it a text, an email, or that note you write on the break room refrigerator claiming your lunch as your own, being able to communicate through the written word is extremely important. But perhaps no piece of writing is as important to a teenager as that of the college entrance essay.
As the new school year ramps up, I begin to get requests to work with students on their college entrance essays. Thankfully, the Common App has streamlined the process for students, so they only need to write one essay. However, how does a student make that essay stand out and increase the chances that they will be accepted into the college of their choice?
It really comes down to branding. In recent years I took coursework on copywriting, and identifying a company’s brand is the cornerstone of wordsmithing the best banner ad, email, or social media post. And so it is with students writing their college entrance essays.
If a student is applying to a large university, they may get accepted on their GPA alone.
However, with the increased number of students taking AP courses, those GPAs stand to be a bit higher due to weighted GPA systems. And even if that student has a strong GPA, highly selective and private schools may look more strongly at an essay to determine whether to send an acceptance letter or a rejection letter.
If a student doesn’t have the highest GPA (perhaps they struggled in a class or took courses of personal interest that did not have a weighted GPA), their overall high school resume of extracurricular activities may help them get an edge.
But if circumstances have prevented a student from attaining a high GPA or from participating in extracurricular activities, the essay can fill in the “gaps” and help those institutions understand who the student is that they are still deliberating over. And this is where branding comes in.
Don’t confuse branding with labels, though. Branding is helping to showcase the overall person, whereas labels can be used to help describe the brand. A person’s brand can feature many labels!
Branding is not something that can easily be covered in a blog post, however, because each person’s brand is so different. But through consultation and coaching, I can help a student identify their brand, and write an essay showcasing that brand to increase their chances of acceptance!
PS: This works for scholarship essay applications as well!
PPS: This works for those looking to brush up their resumes for a job search as well!