Reflections on Education

Lessons from Kmt (known as Ancient Kmt): Education and learning are not mere accumulations of knowledge; they are an awakening of consciousness which goes through successive stages of discovering yourself and the world around you. You are not here to merely gain knowledge of the world but to improve it.

Take seriously your life's purpose and the path toward its fulfillment. Your experiences, observations and objects of study offer opportunities to grow. Devote time each day to study issues adn subjects that have meaning and prepare you to fulfill your life's purpose. Write questions, answers and thoughts into a journal Take time to reflect on what you study and understand its meaning and implications.

While no learning is ever wasted, it is important to study with purpose. Put your attention on matters that move you forward on your path; but do not be so rigid that you cannot explor other things.

Take the lessons from what you learn and show through your actions that you have learned.

A Day in the Life of Timbuktu Academy

Our days are often very full, very busy as we carry out our work. From time to time it is rewarding to sit back and reflect on the beauty of watoto (children) in all the many ways they come. These images were mostly taken in one day, February 5, 2009. You will see them taking tests, learning their letters, standing in line, completing assignments and working on the computer. Not all the photos are pretty, polished and posed; we didn't want that. We wanted to capture a winter working day. Alot was missed, as I only walked around 1 time in the morning. Thus you wont see alot of projects taking place. This is us...in all of our working beauty!

A note on the music: the song is by a South African artist named Thandiswa (Album - Zabalaza, 2007).

February's monthly theme is Sankofa, which symbolizes the unity of the past, present and future. The Sankofa bird looks toward the back, while its body faces forward. Study the past, understand it, learn from it. Take what you learn about the past to understand the things that take place today and do what you can to correct the mistakes made in the past. Continue to learn the lessons from the past and present. Use all that you learn to define a future for you, your family, your community, your people that has you taking charge.

Our ancient ancestors in African Kmt (known as Ancient Egypt) studied everything for a long time before they made conclusions. At a certain period in their history, they did not guess, they did not speculate, they did not lie about what they knew (or didn’t know). Their world view and knowledge was unmatched in antiquity. They studied for eternity, they built for eternity. Our ancestors did not play around with things, they had to be perfect and did not accept mediocrity.

1. Investigate the present facts and past history of a problem
2. When you have investigated the problem thoroughly, you will know how to solve it
3. Draw conclusions after conducting an investigation

From studying our past – Kmt civilization – we learn that African people developed an entire civilization through scientific investigation, mathematical application (through engineering), and socio-cultural unification. We can learn that attempting to find a solution or evolve an idea without research cannot lead to any effective solution or any good idea; A person will arrive at a wrong solution and a wrong idea. Inquire into everything, and then you will be able to solve problems.

Scientific Thinking

I am reading an interesting book called The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science, by Natalie Angier. What I am writing about now is an interesting way to teach scientific thinking to children – the example was given in the book. Do you remember the game called “Mastermind?” Where one person arranges colored pegs and the other person attempts to guess the arrangement? Well check out this excerpt:

“Mastermind…is a microcosm for how science works…Science is not a body of facts. Science is a state of mind. It is a way of viewing the world, of facing reality square on but taking nothing in its face. It is about attacking a problem with the most manicured of claws and tearing it down into sensible, edible pieces.”

“If science is not a static body of facts, what is it? What does it mean to think scientifically, to take a scientific whack at a problem?...If you’re trying to pose a question in a way that gets you data you can interpret, you want to isolate a single variable, and then you see what happens when you change that variable alone, while doing your best to keep everything else in the experiment unchanged. In Mastermind, you change a single peg and watch the impact of that deviation on your experiment.” (p. 20-21)

While the reference is to quantitative research (experimental method), this game has broader implications. Consider, for example, how many times scientists “fail” before finding a solution? How many independent observations over time are needed to reveal historical processes as they unfold? In Kmt (Ancient Egypt) scientists collected and documented data over time – analyses and conclusions drawn from the data permitted scientists and decision-makers to make predictions about when the Nile could be expected to flood, for example. Examples abound.

The point is that science is a state of mind…a way of looking at the world and drawing conclusions based on those observations. It is seeing reality in motion and attempting to understand that reality and explain it; not make it up or improvise. In addition, the science textbooks we use only go so far in what they can offer learners. The development of a truly scientific mind requires active participation in the collection and analysis of data and drawing conclusions based upon those observations.

Best Practices in African Centered Education

In an effort to share information, we would like to invite teachers at African Centered Schools to post their best practices to this site. Please identify your name, grade and school. Also, we welcome you to include your email so that people can follow up with you if they have questions.

Meaning of Education

In this weeks memo to parents and families (September 22-26), I raised the question, "what does education mean to you?" How we value education, what it means to us and our beliefs on it are reflected in the things we do...in even the most subtle ways. For example, if I get my daughter to school late every day, I might tell myself or anyone who asks that the traffic is bad or I can't hear the alarm or I don't have a car. But if I look below the surface, and am honest with myself, I come to realize that perhaps school really isn't as important to me as I might tell others.

Often our beliefs run much deeper than this example. What I mean is that over time our values and beliefs become one with our habits (and vice versa). So early on, for example, we develop a habit of always being late. We may not think that this has anything to do with how we value education, but it does on a subtle level. Consider this, if you have been looking for a job and finally get an interview, you will be at the interview on time, right? Well, we have to have that same level of interest and commitment to our children's education. If we don't then they will develop these same habits (of being late) as they grow up.

The examples above are directed toward getting to school on time. Yet there are other ways that values are revealed - creating time for children to do homework, taking care of their clothes and things (including school uniform, textbooks, etc.), treating teachers and other children, etc.

The botom line is this...education is critical in this period in history. In addition, it is fundamentally different than 15 + years ago. So not only do we, as parents and educators, have to be more vigilent in getting children to school on time and ready to learn, but also we have to be consistent in carving the time out for children to get their work done.

Working Together

On August 23, the Organization of African-centered Educators and Schools (OACES) sponsored a training for teachers and staff of its 3 member schools - Aisha Shule/WEB DuBois Academy, Nsoroma Institute and Timbuktu Academy of Science and Technology. Below are the topics we covered:

1. Shifting Paradigms: The case for African-centered Education (for walimu (teachers) in their 1st or 2nd years at OACES schools). During this session, Baba Malik Yakini (Nsoroma Institute) presented and led a discussion on the importance of ACE, particularly in this period in history.
2. Mdw Nfr: The concept of good speech (for walimu in OACES school for 3+ years). Baba Akinjide Bonotchi Montgomery (Medew Netcher Study Group of Detroit, Inc.) presented on the process for establishing Kmt (known as Ancient Egypt) foundations in our work as educators.
3. Considerations and Strategies for Instilling African-centered concepts - breakout sessions for teachers in grades k-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. An mwalimu from each school presented on best practices for instilling ACE concepts in the classroom.
4. Extending the African centered community. Mama Alisa Lee (Timbuktu Academy) presented on how to involve families in the learning community.

The energy was positive and people were engaged. A challenge that many sometimes face involves implementation of African-centered education, particularly when they are learning themselves. The presentations and ensuing discussions helped to address this.

This was a wonderful example of 3 schools with a common purpose working together to get the job done. Thanks to the leadership, staff and faculty for making this happen.