When deciding to enlighten and inspire a group of students, it is important that your approach comes from a culturally relevant perspective. This is exactly what happened when our guest speaker, Sir Ervin Williams III came to Mathews Dickey Boys and Girls Club recently. In this inquiry based lesson, Mr. Williams opened up the session by asking the students to define what they perceived as a man with a one word description. During this part of the lesson, the adults in the room felt the need to engage in the conversation just as much as the students. This was followed up by a healthy but very productive debate based on a real life situation that involved one of Mr. Williams’s former students which tied into that definition of a man. The fact that many students could relate to this situation is what made this lesson the epitome of culturally relevant pedagogy. Following this very engaging discussion, Mr. Williams began educating the students on how although we may see ourselves as as smart, honest or intelligent, others may see us as something negative or undesirable. He explained that this is what leads to many of us falling victim to an unjust infrastructure as we are witnessing in the media as of late. He concluded by making sure that we understood the importance of knowing who we are and having integrity by not being afraid to stand by the truth even when it is not the most popular thing to do at the moment. The big picture that Mr. Williams painted for the students was that in due time, doing the right thing will be the most beneficial.
