Ms. Kimberly Worthy on Educational Excellence (by Steeve Pierre-Louis)

I initially thought it was weird that the Freshman Seminar team would bring in a teacher to speak to us, rather than another professor or Ph.D. individual. I actually admit that I didn't expect to learn much from Ms. Worthy. However, as soon as she spoke, it made me want to listen. I especially liked the part where she mentioned that she wasn't bragging, but simply illuminating her accomplishments while working at schools and consistently becoming teacher of the year.

One factor of her teaching that helps me believe in her ability to change student's lives is that she understands that different people are taught differently. It really is a crime when some students who are smart and know their craft cannot prove it through standardized testing like other students because they just aren't good test takers. We've all heard this before, however Ms. Worthy took it a bit further. The African psyche and its views on the world are fundamentally different than those of Europeans and Americans. Ms. Worthy mentioned that Africans see everything as connected; according to her, learning things separately like math, english, history, and science is foreign to us because our ancestors saw the bigger picture. Interestingly enough, this was also mentioned in a previous lecture.

Dr. Beatty spoke on how it was that Africans brought to the U.S. and endured slavery accepted Christianity. He stated that our ancestors saw things holistically. They saw that parts of Christianity were similar to what they knew. Being open-minded people as well, they openly accepted Christianity as their religion, even though it was completely foreign to them. Unknowingly, Ms. Worthy corroborated this statement by Dr. Beatty.

Ms. Worthy also spoke on schools in South Africa where students face many hardships and dangers in their communities. The schools posted there, known as LEAP, are like shelters that provide the students a family as well as an education. I specifically liked how Ms. Worthy mentioned a specific tribal proverb that the schools use to educate the students. What made it even better is how the students are participating in what is clearly an mbongi. This again pertains to a previous lecture, this time by Dr. Carr. Ms. Worthy mentioned that the students let it all out and cleared their consciousness in an open room where everyone is equal and everything said is public. Sounds a lot like a "room without walls" to me.

Stories like these warm my heart. What also got me thinking was the fact that the owner of the LEAP school in Africa knew that the students did not need any of our familiar aspects of education like bells and the like to learn. He wanted to make things as naturally and closely related to the way the students can learn things as their ancestors. And the results of this are clear. Ms. Worthy mentioned a debate competition in which the students at LEAP defeated a much more prestigious school. Therefore, the methods mentioned by Ms. Worthy were effective.

Simply through her presentation, I can imagine her in a classroom teaching students in a way they can understand and learn just as effectively as in LEAP. Ms. Worthy gave us all a small biography of her early life and how she got into teaching. A very inspiring story, she found her calling to make a difference in the lives of children and students who are simply becoming lost in the deteriorating and ineffective structure of education that exists in the U.S. now. I hope I hear more from Ms. worthy some time in the future as I believe her work is significantly going to "redefine our social space," in the words of last week's lecturer, Dr. Thorton.