The Program
Setting
My buddy Brian, Tufts’ Catholic society’s equivalent to me, and I pair up as impromptu, jovial group leaders in the large rooms to which we are assigned. We lead our cohort with laughter to craft a massive tower of popsicle sticks, mini pom-poms and pipe cleaners.
I didn’t notice anything odd that de-facto two white men fell into roles of authority.
Subtle, yet in the open
>
> “What?”
>
> “Barbara yelling at Marcell, about rampant inequality when her group needed more tape.”
>
> “Yeah. And, Marcell?”
>
> “Stayed right on repeating the task, like, your task is to work with your cohort, within a time boundary of ten-minutes, using materials provided, to build your “best tower.”
>
> “Good.”
>
> “If she spent more time.”
>
> “I know.”
The system isn’t broken, it’s doing exactly what it was set-up to do.
It was a set-up.
The whole thing.
But, no one made us gaze into our pom-pom festooned navels and and ignore the disenfranchised.

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My classroom. North Portland. September 2016. This week, I will meet five new sets of students. It’s my seventh year as a full-time high school math teacher. Today is our second day and the second day that I’m not doing any mathematics in the classroom. I’m hoping to...