I Wish I Had a Rubric

There is a lot of focus this GA on multiculturalism and anti-oppression.  Every workshop session there is at least one workshop about either class, or race, or ability.  It certainly provides a lot of food for thought.  Sitting at dinner with my parents tonight, I mused - "I wish I had a rubric.  One in which I could look at each program offered by RE and evaluate, is this program... Multicultural (check), Socioeconomic divers (check), ability sensitive (check), LGBTQ friendly (check), gender neutral (check), intergenerational (check)."  And, so on and so forth, until I had covered all of my 'basis'.  Of course, not every program could meet all of these needs - but, I surmise that if we knew what needs were being met, then we would know what needs were NOT being met and we could work towards welcoming everyone throughout a year's span.

Wonderful dream isn't it?  Too bad it requires knowledge that, at this moment, is outside the realm of what this middle class white girl from the suburbs knows.  Thankfully, there are people far wiser than I who are willing to share what they know.  Here is a snippet of the wisdom I gleamed from them today...

Workshop #1: The Sophia Lyon Fahs Lecture
Again, Rev. Mark Morrison-Reed spoke.  But, this time, he talked about our associations educational history, and the resources developed by Fahs herself.  He evaluated Fahs materials (and many more) through a multicultural lens and found them... utterly lacking - books and curriculum created for Unitarian children in the middle of the 20th century, "pure white" and pure middle class.  However, this curriculum stands in sharp contrast to the social activism displayed by many of our youth during the civil rights movement.  So, what did our Unitarian congregations do that made our youth into change agents?  Rev. Morrison-Reed put it simply, "the message was in the meaning."  In short, the congregations of the mid 20th century recognized that when it comes to teaching our children, it was relationships first, and content second.  And, it was through these intergenerational relationships that our youth learned about justice and compassion, and that they were put on course to activism.

Workshop #2: Doing Church in the 21st Century
My report on this workshop, I know, has been much anticipated, as Sharon highlighted it in her sermon on passion.  However, I am sad to say, this workshop was almost a complete let down.  I won't go into the details of the workshop (why I felt it was a poor workshop).  Instead, I will just leave you with a question, as well as the presenters main thesis.

Question - Compare the world of the 1950's to Today.  What differences can you name? (i.e. Nuclear Families V. Non-Traditional Families)

Thesis - If you have many UU congregations within a relatively small geographical area (say, the size of greater Cincinnati) everyone may be better served by combining congregational operations and creating satellite sites out of what were the individual congregations.

Workshop #3: Congregational History
A Living History Quest in the style of "The Magic Tree House", UU Tours of Cincinnati, and A Histories Mysteries Club - just a few suggestions how now to make First Church history come alive this fall.  And, that is all I have to say about that.

Workshop #4: Building a Just World Beginning with our Children
In a word, AMAZING.  2 public educators, and 1 DRE spoke about their efforts to involve children in social justice.  Throughout the workshop, we heard about children building their own foundations, instituting congregational programs and sharing deep discussions about the nature of love and loss.  The major themes running throughout this workshop: Child centered and community connections.  The most powerful quote of the day came from this workshop.  I offer it up to any parent, grandparent, educator or volunteer - "When we take children's lives seriously, our job is to act like an amplifier."  Now, my mind is abuzz with ideas.

Of course, more could be shared.  But, this post is already long enough, and if I am going to survive tomorrow, I must depart.

So long!

- Ms. Meredith