草莓社区

On June 23, 草莓社区’s Executive Director, Annie Kidder, received an honorary聽degree from York University at the spring convocation ceremony for the Faculty of Education. In a moving commencement address, she spoke of the important role of teachers聽in “educating the new generations that this country, and our world needs.” Here is the transcript of her speech to the graduates:

Thank you so much.

I feel I huge sense of both gratitude and responsibility today.

The gratitude part is easy: I鈥檓 grateful to York University for the honour of this degree; for the recognition of the importance of the work 草莓社区 has been involved in over the last 20 years (this degree really reflects the work of a whole team of people 鈥� not just me); and also I鈥檓 grateful for the bridge this helps to build 鈥� between the academic community and the world of non-profits 鈥� like mine.

It鈥檚 the sense of responsibility that鈥檚 harder.

I feel as if my job today is to inspire you 鈥� to help be part of your 鈥渓aunch鈥� into whatever your next steps are. But, at the same time, I feel that the world that I鈥檓 hoping to help launch you into is a deeply troubled and increasingly polarized one.

Even worse than that, I feel at least partly responsible for the mess. My 25-year-old likes to explain to me 鈥� often 鈥� about how my generation screwed things up. And unfortunately she鈥檚 right.

We seem to be a long way 鈥� maybe even longer away than when I was young 鈥� from solving the intractable problems that divide us and that jeopardize our future.

We haven鈥檛 closed the gap between rich and poor 鈥� in fact it鈥檚 growing bigger. We haven鈥檛 overcome the inequities in our society fueled by marginalization based on race and class and ethnicity.

We failed to solve our environmental problems 鈥� in fact sustainability and climate change are an even bigger threat today.

We thought the cold war was the biggest problem facing the world.

But now, we have something different and much worse: we have increasingly angry forms of populism that are dividing us and threatening our democracies; we have millions of refugees displaced from their homelands by civil war, terrorism, oppression or deprivation 鈥� or a combination of all of those things. We have job insecurity 鈥� in part because of the changing nature of work, but also because we鈥檙e not necessarily preparing young people for success in the current and future economies.

And maybe even scariest of all, is the notion that this a 鈥減ost-truth鈥� era 鈥� one where people talk about alternative facts, or where people can say things like 鈥淚 don鈥檛 care what the evidence is, I don鈥檛 agree.鈥�

So鈥�.that鈥檚 the state of the world into which you鈥檙e being launched and it鈥檚 pretty depressing 鈥� but despite that, I think there is hope.

And a lot of that hope lies in you.

You 鈥� the graduating class in education 鈥� actually embody hope. And I hope that you can remember that as you go forward.

There is no more important job in the world than being a teacher. Yes, yes, doctors can save lives, carpenters can build our homes, social workers can help families, and air traffic controllers keep all those planes from crashing. But teaching?

A) you鈥檙e teaching all those other people, so that individually they can go on to lead successful lives.

But, even more important is…

B) those of you who become teachers are responsible for ensuring that we have new generations who can innovate and adapt and imagine and continue to learn; who are equipped to be contributing members of society, and who understand how we are connected, to each other and to the world around us.

You鈥檙e going to educate kids so that they don鈥檛 fall prey to the divisiveness that is so prevalent today. So that they don鈥檛 feel they have to be on a 鈥渟ide,鈥� and so that they can understand different points of view and which things are based on evidence and which are based on emotion.

You鈥檙e going to be educating the new generations that this country, and our world needs.

But that鈥檚 not your only job 鈥� on top of all that, you鈥檙e also going to have to help groups like ours shift the system a little.

Because if the job of our publicly funded schools is to prepare the next generations to play a real role in the world 鈥� no matter who they are or what their background. If we can start to assume of the system that it will foster students 鈥� whether they want to be bricklayers, dentists or chefs 鈥� who have the capacity and the sense of agency that will allow them to have an impact on the world around them; who will be able to vote with a deep understanding of the issues 鈥� and who鈥檒l understand their responsibility to vote; who know how to collaborate; how to take care of their mental and physical health; how to use innovative approaches to problem-solving; and how to take the knowledge they have gained in one context and adapt it to another one.

If we can do that, then there鈥檚 hope. Because these have to be the new basics for education. They are the basics for becoming responsible human beings who can develop a world where there is hope for all of us.

And if we can foster those 鈥渂asics鈥� in our next generations 鈥� then there鈥檚 hope.

And that will be your job.

And I hope that you truly believe and understand how vital that job is for all of us, and how much hope you can provide to the world.

鈥�And within that big context, I want to finish by talking a little about humanity. Because if we are to make the world an even slightly better place 鈥� it鈥檚 vital that we bring ourselves as human beings to this enterprise 鈥� no matter what we鈥檙e doing.

I鈥檒l start, by sharing a little of my humanness. I actually never graduated from university. Sometimes I鈥檓 embarrassed to tell people that 鈥� particularly because of the job I do.

I never graduated from university and I have taken a long and very winding road to get here today. There have been many bumps along the way, and I have made lots and lots of really big mistakes in my life. I am human.

I grew up in an incredibly dysfunctional family, moved a million times, engaged in lots of risky behavior, and failed over and over. And as an outcome of all of that (and years of therapy), I believe deeply and strongly that it is vital that we try to be 鈥減resent鈥� as human beings no matter what we鈥檙e doing or what our work is. It is my belief and my hope, that by bringing my humanness to every conversation and to all aspects of my work and my relationships, that I can help make the world a little better.

I think sometimes we think that when grow up and graduate and get jobs, that in order to be successful, we have to turn off our humanness. But it鈥檚 actually the opposite. That essential humanness is the thing that connects us, that allows us to have empathy and compassion, and even to understand different points of view.

And there may be nowhere that this is more true, than in teaching. Teaching is all about relationships 鈥� between students and teachers, teachers and each other; teachers and parents; and teachers as members of communities.

But in order for those relationships to really work, you have to bring yourself to them 鈥� even when you feel insecure, or you鈥檙e not sure if you鈥檙e doing the right thing, or if you鈥檙e wrestling with biases that you wish you didn鈥檛 have and that we all always want to deny.

We are human. And sometimes it鈥檚 really hard to be human. But if we can bring ourselves, our humanness, and our sense of connection to each other and the world, we could definitely have a bit more hope than maybe we do right now.

I have one more piece of gratitude that I want to offer. And that鈥檚 to my family. The four of us 鈥� my husband Eric Peterson, and our daughters Molly Kidder and Katie Peterson 鈥� have navigated lots of challenges, have had many collective triumphs and deal every day with our humanness. Without them, I never could have done this work 鈥� I am so grateful to them and so proud of them.

I hope that you are all really excited and really proud. I hope that you are optimistic about your futures, and I hope that you remember every day how important your contributions are, and how much the world needs you.

Thank you.