Getting High At Sarasota High

 

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Sarasota High School Main Entrance

Outdoor Gathering Area

We are are Sarasota High School  "Go Sailors" on 7th December 2020

We were three Golden Retrievers; one Black Labrador; a hand held dog which looked more like a feather duster;  

and the famous Mr. Z.

Old picture, not yesterday.

We were at SHS  to provide a wee bit of canine therapy following the shocking and horrible accident of a sixteen years old male student in a terrible road accident.

We were there to give, but I received so much from some of the bright young men - students who give me hope for the future.

L... has the greatest blessings of a musical heritage.  His mother is Welsh born  (and Welsh speaking).  His father is Italian.  L... was born in Milan.

We talked a bit about the wonderful Gothic Cathedral there, and how we had both taken walks on "pathways" on the roof.

We talked about the Welsh language, and how the English had done their darnedest to eradicate it  (L... had read all about this in a museum at St. Fagan's, near Cardiff).  

I told him about the Breton language ( sister language to Welsh), and how the French had attempted to suppress it too.

( First rule of colonizers -  suppress the local language, and thus suppress the history and culture of the people.  Make them forget who they were.)

Then a conversation with  (n)  no name given. He was in the midst of a history course.  I ventured my theory that teaching history by chronology is a dead end -  often a boring list of dates; and as if (for instance) on the first day of the 17th Century everything changed from the last day of the 16th Century).

My thought is that history should be taught thematically with a world wide scope.  Themes could be, e.g. hunter-gatherer cultures; the emergence of agriculture; the development of written language; how and why religions evolved; how and why peoples moved from isolated shacks, caves etc into villages, towns, cities and nations.

(n) liked my theory.  He said that I should be a history teacher.  "No", I replied " for I simply know a little bit about many things".

They were a wee bit cautious of meeting me; two young African-American Students.   After all, why should they expect anything good from an old white man?  Encouraged by Zion they drew near.

 One of them wore a black face mask with the white lettering BLACK LIVES MATTER.  I asked if he had received any sh-t in school for wearing it.  The answer was no.  I failed to ask the follow up questions  "do white students want to talk about it?"

Then truly, I became teary eyed as I reckoned with the fact that however good, kind, intellectually bright and deeply thoughtful these young man are they will always be confronted with challenges which will never be faced by two similar white young men.

I told them about the BLM Zoom group in which I participate every Thursday.   Then, with considerable vehemence I uttered "Black Lives Matter and I Hate What Happens to Black People"

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Zion gave a lot yesterday.  I have been on a high ever since musing, smiling and rejoicing in the human therapy which was the gift of Sarasota High School Students to me.

Oh Lucky Man!