The Big Questions — Impact.Ed

“Can I ask you a question? It’s sort of about the world in general, and it’s okay if you don’t have the answer,” asked Vishwa, a 7th grade student living in Tennessee. What I have learned as an educator is that in teaching social entrepreneurship, social justice and service learning, I never have the answer. He continued with his eyes angled toward the sky, “Is everything going to be okay at the end of this? Like people and businesses and my friends and family? You know, I’m not white and what I mean is...well what I am trying to ask is...is what’s going in the world right now normal?”

This is a heartbreaking question. Making space for this question is the reason I work in education, and I’m so grateful Vishwa felt comfortable enough to even ask this question during a recent Entrepreneurship and Impact course I taught through the National Network of Schools in Partnership (NNSP).

I answered him with a non-answer:“I love questions that don’t necessarily have answers and I believe that’s why we are here together tonight.” We went on to have a really meaningful dialogue about words like hope, optimism, and how investment of all kinds (time, treasure, talent and trust) is a way to live out those words. One golden nugget that emerged that night:“People don’t start a business, launch or project, or make an investment because they think things are going downhill. They do that because they are hopeful that they are going to be better and they want to do their part.” YES! I love teaching social entrepreneurship for this reason: it is a brave act of hope and optimism for our communities, for our planet and for our students. I like to end my lessons by asking students to share something they have read, listened to, watched or heard that has had an impact on them. Some weeks the responses are sillier than others but I am always amazed how much this share and ritual of closing our time together piques a sense of curiosity and wonder week after week. Learning in partnership with one another is such an important skill and also instills a deep sense of connection and hope.

Mariama Kaba famously said, “hope is a discipline,” and in light of that provocation, I thought I would share some of what is giving me hope as a learner, leader, and social impact thinker. Below is a 2021 Social Impact Playlist made up of a list of various resources that have deepened my learning and growth and pushed me to think about my agency as a social entrepreneurship educator. What I love about the french definition of entrepreneurship (entre=to undertake) is that it implies action. It implies work. It implies connection to people and our planet. Statements and discussion without action are simply hallucination. So let’s get to work; let’s undertake the real work of being an anti-racist community. Let’s keep working together to give students the toolkit and space to ask Vishwa’s question as a part of everyday school. Let’s support learners of all ages to believe in the honing and shaping of systems that create economic, racial, and gender equity and justice.

I made this playlist with Poet Laurette Amanda Gorman’s words ringing in my ear, “We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one ... There is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” I hope you will check-out a few of these resources and then make a playlist of your own and share it with us so that we can learn and be hopeful in partnership.