Eradicating Silence

I went to teach in the Chicago Public School System in 2003 as a white girl from the suburbs, and now I am a completely different person because of my students and how they have taught me to look at the world. The most vital lesson I learned as a teacher is that my students and I were so much more alike then we were different. Our society keeps recycling age-old stereotypes that simply are not true, yet they are brewed, served and devoured like our morning coffee. If the world sees the inner-beauty, passion, and optimism I have seen in my students, the way people think will change. Therefore, I want to give a gift to those students who have changed me the most, by showing them the world, enriching their passions and documenting this experience through film.

- Rachel Bellande Erazo

(photos taken by Rachel Bellande Erazo)	The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as when you came in -James Baldwin
I went to teach in the Chicago Public School System in 2003 as a white girl from the suburbs, and now I am a completely different person because of my students and how they have taught me to look at the world. The most vital lesson I learned as a teacher is that my students and I were so much more alike then we were different. Our society keeps recycling age-old stereotypes that simply are not true, yet they are brewed, served and devoured like our morning coffee. If the world sees the inner-beauty, passion, and optimism I have seen in my students, the way people think will change. Therefore, I want to give a gift to those students who have changed me the most, by showing them the world, enriching their passions and documenting this experience through film. - Rachel Bellande Erazo
Why Must We Do This? When I taught in Chicago, I would take home a backpack full of worries on the weekends about my students and their futures. The expectations my administrators had for my students, both in education and in life, were palpably low. I attended a public high school in the western suburbs of Chicago, and I taught at a public high school in the city. They were two completely different entities. The inequalities were vast and my students were the victims of the very system that was to educate them to their best caliber. My students wanted so desperately to learn, yet tried to do so in a culture of failure and in a system that was failing them. If our country sees what I have seen and if they hear from my own students, they will look at race, education and socio-economics in a different light. We are constantly hearing from adults on education and race; it is time we hear from the kids and look at them beyond what we are told to believe. I must stand up for the rights of my students and give these voiceless children a voice. Dr. King states, “There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” As an educator, and as an advocate for children, the silence of this issue is deafening. Something must be done. Therefore, Welcome to The University of Ruined Strawberries!

(photos taken by Rachel Bellande Erazo)

Why Must We Do This?

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University of Ruined Strawberries © 2010 All Rights Reserved
Design by Poche-Poke.com