The Haitian Community and What we Teach Ourselves

Jose Vilson's reflection on the role of how education, as a marker of status, of identity and of self-direction gave me a bit to think about. I'm not the popular type of Haitian; I don't folllow any organized religions, I don't have any form of heavy accrediations and I don't optimize myself around making a lot of money. For many migrants and children thereof, there is a pressure to assimiliate heavily into what conservative Black America deems as the "way forward": buying our way to respect. However, Vilson breaks away from that a bit here with the focus on education: one of the career paths that's routinely discouraged because it's not as profitable as being a doctor or lawyer^[1].

His reference to teachers being the vanguard of society is something I resonate with and it comes as the antithesis of the aforementioned: instead of an obsession with building a golden calf today, we work to ensure more stable and fertile lands for the future. It's not to fall in the path of longtermism but to understand what things we are doing today that we have seen yesterday that'll make tomorrow more challenging for those who are going to be in our positions.

What his cousin said is something I'm considering heavily, provided life and resources align; on the idea that school can be a place to return if one is seeking guidance or feeling lost in life. Perhaps.