Monthly Archives: October 2020

Eagle Rock Students Explore a Half-century of U.S. Social Movements

This week, we highlight the fourth post in a series that is shining a spotlight on some of the classes here at Eagle Rock School. Today, I’m pleased to tell you about Then and Now: A History of Social Movements, which is a class I am co-teaching with Societies & Cultures instructional specialist, Cedric Josey.

I feel very fortunate to be co-leading this class, where we are exploring how Black lives have mattered to the judicial system and the American public at large. And we are doing this by exploring social movements for justice spanning more than 50 years. In the United States, this question is popularly and painfully analyzed via the image of dead and brutalized bodies in print or on a screen, and eulogized in hashtags in our social media feeds.

(from L to R) Emmet Till, Trayvon Martin, and Ahmaud Arbery

Whether by a private individual or a law enforcement officer, the cases and victims memorialized throughout the ages generally share similar features:

  1. A shocking act of dehumanization.
  2. Outrage boils to the surface as demands for justice.
  3. A nation is conflicted and brought to violence.
  4. Repair is rare.

Often, the state and the law shields the perpetrator from accountability; this was vividly evident in the blatant disregard for the loss of human life demonstrated by the Attorney General of Kentucky in the case of Breonna Taylor — a recent tragedy in a long history of names, known and unknown.

In some way, everyone reading this experienced the largest social movement in our nation’s history — the one that erupted earlier this year when at least 29 million people protested after the world witnessed the Continue reading…

Food for Thought: Eagle Rock Class Takes a Look at Our Eating Habits

Today’s post is the third in a series that explores new class offerings for Eagle Rock School’s 82nd trimester, and this time around, we’re sitting in on You Are What You Eat, a class that asks students to research the foods they eat and investigate ways that food influences more than just our physical bodies.

Instructors for this class are Sara Benge, our science instructional specialist, and myself — Mitaali Taskar, a 2020/2021 Public Allies Fellows. If you didn’t get a chance to read Eagle Rock Welcomes 7 Public Allies Fellows to Our Community for 2020/2021, I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in biology, so I naturally have questions, including:

  • Why do we need food?
  • What foods do we need?
  • What food is healthy?
  • What does “healthy” mean?
  • And, if food is such a necessity, why is there such inequity in the our country’s food system?

The final question posed above is in response to Eagle Rock’s effort to incorporate historically responsive literacy in our greater push towards embodying anti-racist, social justice teachings, while at the same time going virtual in response to COVID-19. As you may be aware, we have restructured some of our 10-week in-person classes into a five-week virtual course, and in this case, we’re discussing food justice and the many related perceptions surrounding health.

That being said, you can’t talk about food justice and health in the United States without first learning the basics of food. So, for the first few weeks of this class, students have been learning about macronutrients and micronutrients, and how these nutrients are presented to us through our culture, our families, and of course, media in the form of advertising.

Students were asked to take, for example, the connection between Continue reading…

Class Focus: Tending to Mind, Body and Soul Creates a Champion

Much more than just a scheduled workout program, In the Mind of a Champion is a new class offering at Eagle Rock School that asks participating students to reflect on their own mind, body, and spirit, and to also consider how the world currently aligns with their personal values.

With intent on developing a personalized physical fitness program, students are also being asked to contemplate on how the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and COVID-19 have had an impact on professional athletes.

Led by Jocelyn Rodriguez, Eagle Rock’s athletics coordinator, and Dan Marigny, a 2020/2021 Public Allies Fellow, students enrolled in this class are listening, researching, and speaking up about how the coronavirus has changed the way sports are viewed, and how athletes are now standing in solidarity on issues put forth by social justice movements like Black Lives Matter. Specifically, each student is asked how they may be able to adopt these athletes’ platform practices into their own lives.

Mind of a Champion Eagle Rock

In addition to highlighting aspects of their physical workout with Jocelyn and Don each week, students are asked to reflect on their mind, body, and spirit and how each aspect contributes to their personal views on the world around them and what it means to be a “champion.” Specifically, they are asked for their take on why athletes in various sports have opted out of participating in their current season, dedicating  time to activism, and walked off of fields and courts to make a statement about the importance of justice.

What is each student expected to take away from this class? Simply put, the primary objective is to Continue reading…

Ballot Box Stats Prove Voting MATHers

Hilary Clinton wasn’t the first presidential candidate to win the popular vote yet lose the election. Truth is, statistics and demographics have affected several elections over the centuries. And that’s important stuff to know, according to Stephany Subdiaz, Math Instructional Specialist, who is teaching a class this trimester called Voting MATHers.

So, was it entirely unfair that Clinton received more popular votes in the 2016 campaign than Donald Trump? Perhaps. But maybe not. Students enrolled in Subdiaz’s class are exploring the mathematics behind our nation’s elections. How do all those individual ballots get counted? Is the count generally accurate?

In Voting MATHers, students are also taking a close view of the Electoral College — a complex system that some folks believe should be disbanded. They’re also looking at alternative voting systems and methods of tallying votes, with an eye on the advantages and disadvantages of some of these vote-counting options.

So far students have discovered that depending on what state someone lives in, their vote can count more than others and vice versa. For example, a candidate could potentially win the electoral college vote while winning only 22 percent of the popular vote in certain states.

This week, for example, students are Continue reading…