Tete’s Vision

In my 40 years of working in schools I have been most effective in my administrative or teaching roles when I have consciously tapped into the emotional part of my experience as a child growing up in Ghana. I have told the story of slavery and indentured servitude in my family with passion and conviction. I have explored empathy in my art lessons invoking my experience of the underrepresented. Like many of us, I have applied the lessons of experiencing being marginalized and also being in a privileged and dominant group. More importantly, I have recognized the insights and resilience these experiences have afforded me. I believe that teachers who develop emotional connections to the contents of their subjects develop an urgency to pass on valuable core elements of humanity, curiosity and open mindedness to their students and communities. 

Educators who have been involved with experiential education confirm that hands on involvement in learning allows emotional connections to the topics and subjects we teach. Students and teachers alike engage deeper learning and attain confidence, success and ownership in their responsibilities.  As an experienced teacher, coach, advisor and administrator I have concluded that these experiences can also be transformative for teachers and lifelong learners while creating peace, friendship and understanding among different people and cultures. 

Azar Nafisi once said “Only curiosity about the fate of others, the ability to put ourselves in their shoes, and the will to enter their world through the magic of imagination, creates this shock of recognition. Without this empathy there can be no genuine dialogue, and we as individuals and nations will remain isolated and alien, segregated and fragmented.”