“Millie was a thin, quiet student who wore large glasses and liked to wear pastel-colored bows in her hair. She was absent often and sick a lot. But when the class began discussing the topic for our documentary, she became animated, suggesting we should make a film about housing.”

It’s Not About Grit – Steven Goodman pg. 15

I find it very powerful that a student who is likely not performing her best at school due to unlivable circumstances at home would suddenly perk up and become very engaged when given the opportunity to investigate and address those same appalling circumstances for a documentary. It seems that she became motivated upon realizing that she could learn about an issue that is personal and meaningful to her. Not only was the topic relevant to her real life, but she was also able to actively participate in her own learning by conducting interviews of people living in her building, including her own family members. All of these factors combined to create a project that actually meant something to this student, something that awoke concern and even passion for justice and learning inside of her. 

This reminds me of curriculum integration; students were able to choose a topic of interest for themselves, and Millie chose one that was clearly very meaningful for her. While reading about this project, I thought of everything that was being integrated within it, like history, social justice, activism, student interests and needs, interviews/research, teamwork, and more. It was also inspiring to see that a student could pull so much from her own experiences and funds of knowledge for this project, which hopefully made her realize that her contributions are very important. While her living situation was appalling, it was also an opportunity for her to teach others about these conditions and to research more about them herself. With the help of the EVC project, her situation gave her a chance to find her voice within these matters and start down her own path of activism. 

In the past, I’ve been a little confused about where empathy ends and pity starts. At what point does a teacher go from being empathetic and understanding to just adopting a deficit perspective of her students? I have worried about this a lot, but reading about this project has actually helped clear this up for me a bit. Over the course of this project, a student suffering in an unacceptable living space was able to speak up, share her knowledge, and actively try to gain more knowledge via research. The deficit perspective is not present; Millie is an asset to the study. However, the study also recognizes the unfairness of her situation and demands a change. The empathy is there, the recognition of an unjust and unlivable situation is there, but the pity is not there. Instead, Millie is being encouraged to understand the circumstances more and to then speak up about what is right and what is wrong.