Way to start off a year.Ā
I felt really incoherent throughout this whole project. We started off our project learning about Canadian history, and our rights. No clue why, since we didnāt touch on it again.Ā
We started strong, with a funky assignment about what I think the soul of the project was.
Asking questions.Ā
The funky assignment in question was simple. List 10 or so questions to guide an inquiry about the identity of Canadian Women.
A very simple question with very complex possible answers. This is what I came up with.
- What are some different stereotypes for women? Why were they created, how do they relate to the past.
- Common everyday struggles/workplace
- Differences between canadian women and other countries. How is the history of (your home country) different than Canadaās history? How is it the same?
- Life advice for other women
- Are you proud to be a woman and why?
- What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
- What are three things youād want changed in Canada?
- How have your experiences changed over time as you change and society changes?
- Have you noticed any important changes because of feminism?
- How has Canadaās past affected how you are treated today?Ā
The answers that would get would tell me a lot about this person in specific, not all women in general, which isnāt quite what the question was asking, but I still am proud of what I came up with.
We did some more of these assignments on different topics, such as one where I wrote my own questions, and answered them. But what about theā¦
Final product?
The topic of the āThis Is Usā project was to learn to ask questions that guide an inquiry.
We did this through practice assignments, all to lead up to an exhibition styled event called a āThe Human Libraryā. We didnāt come up with the human library, the human library was created by danish NGO Stop Volden in 2000.Ā The point of a human library is to āunjudge someoneā. To take away prejudice or educate yourself about someone with different experiences/past than you.Ā
People with diseases, minorities, immigrants, people with disabilities, even Old people could be in a human library.
These people are books, people with stories to tell and questions to answer.
Important terms
Book – Term used to describe the people who you talk to during a Human Library
Human Library – my best definition: Itās like those seminars that successful people hold to teach others about who they are and how they got there. Except itās one on one instead of a big crowd all watching and learning from one person.Ā
Biggest takeaway
I learned how to work on my work efficiency through this project. The start of school and training again was a lot all at once. I was way out of tune, and didnāt take anything seriously enough, but that was NOT gonna cut it.
I missed the most important week of the project, because my parents decided to go to America for a road trip. I wasnāt there for the entire wrap up week, the most important week on maker and the friggin HUMAN LIBRARY! But I used the road trip to observe and talk to people and listen to their stories.
And, I worked very hard for the next week. I am happy to have caught up on time for Humanities, and finish the blog post on time, but the grind is not over yet. That was only the first project.
See next time, blog masters!
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