love revolutionary

Love Revolutionary

Duncan in his book “The Art of Critical Pedagogy” talk about the kind of love that “gives us the courage to do the unthinkable. (Love) that gives us the courage to sacrifice for causes greater than ourselves.” More often than not, trying to change policy can feel like an enormous feat. Since racist ideology has infested many areas of life and especially institutions of learning, changing policy means changing the rules. “Love is never easy, because great love also means great pain,” Duncan writes. This quote serves as a reminder, that in the struggle to create better schools, know there will be pain along the way. As educators and youth workers we must face this as part of the path. What we must never forget is that we are not doing this “for” the youth, but should be doing this work of love, alongside them. PASS is a program that began from the expertise of young leaders. It is evolving in it's first two years and the learning lessons gained during the pilot, will inform the years to follow. Each step of the way, youth will be involved in the growth of PASS. They will inform the direction in which it takes and constantly have their words written into the herstory. PASS is about changing the learning space and honoring the expertise and power of young people. It honors the legacy of REAL HARD Youth Organizers that saw their peers as resources and wanted to use Peer Influence rather than Peer Pressure, to create positive change at their schools. The implementation of PASS wasn’t only a policy win, but it attempts to shift student culture at the school. Both policy work and culture work must exist for lasting change to occur (Oakland Kids First). Collaboration must happen student to student, and student to adult. This way, as we transform individually we also inspire the transformation of those around us. With this kind of revolutionary love, the moments of struggle will never destroy that vision for better schools.