The July Meetup took the form of a “virtual healing 101” classroom, as our community from across the globe gathered on Zoom to discuss the education system and share school experiences. TMS hosts of the evening were Mike Avila and Ariel Bastida. They warmed up the class by prompting a journaling exercise that asked the community to write about memorable K-12 experiences, favorite topics (both taught and wish they had been taught), and influential teachers.
Mike Avila began the meetup with a reminder of what compulsory education is. He then explained its impact on our society by saying, “since the creation of compulsory education, there have been struggles over what schools should be teaching, who can attend the schools, and who makes the decisions for schools all over the globe.” Mike pointed out how marginalized peoples have been cut short of quality education by the colonial narratives taught in history classes. He spoke of the overbearing patriarchy that dominates our school halls, where bullying is shrugged off as “kids just being kids.” He also highlighted that corporal punishment is still legal in 19 American states.
“But with the burden of navigating all of those issues in education,” Mike continued, “we've still witnessed things like teachers' unions fighting for their students—for more than just working conditions,” sharing a silver lining to a system that feels immensely irreparable.
