StoryCorps: An interview between a young boy and his father.
Youtube/Democracy Now!
Adain Sykes
September 16th, 2016
This is an inspirational look at one parent's views of raising a black boy in not only Mississipi, but the world in general. The short video begins with nine-year-old Adian Sykes asking his father what he first thought when he was born. His father responds with; that while it was the proudest moment of his life, he was also very scared. He states that he saw his son as a "blank canvas" and how he know it was up to him to add to this canvas, he also could not control the "paint strokes". He mentions the fear of raising a black boy in Mississipi, and how that has shaped the way he has raised his sons. This roughly 6-minute video is a glimpse into the life of a parent and their wants for their child.
Stories such as Adain and his father's will make up the population we as future educators will be working with. I felt this video highlighted our conversation from last Saturday's meeting about hearing, knowing, and acknowledging people's stories. How the ability to not shy away from learning about our students and each story they bring to our classroom is critical to building community within our schools.
The audience for this video I feel is truly anyone who wants to learn more about complete strangers, and be inspired by the love and guidance one father is giving his son.
I really enjoyed this video story. Like you mentioned above, families similar to Adain's will be in the population of children we will be serving. Earlier this week I saw a post about a teacher having her students complete the sentence "What I wish my teacher knew..." and this video reminded me of that. It is so important, as educators, to know who our students are as individuals and the issues that they face. This father seems to be loving and caring and he shows it by making sure he is educated and not just influenced by the mass media.
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