After having repeated this spiel countless times, mostly because I couldn’t pronounce ‘three’ right, I could probably tell you about E3 Talent Design Lab in my sleep. A non-profit organisation focused on providing quality early childhood education (ECE) as well as professional development services, E3’s office sits in a tall building almost in the heart of downtown Detroit. The organisation boasts an army of highly-qualified individuals whom make up the bulk of Detroit’s ECE top dogs. Their main objective is a large-scale projection of my heart’s timid dream – to provide every child with a quality learning experience.
Arts For Learning’s Sake is a project that Ayat and I are spearheading. In short, it’s a project aimed at children ages 0-5 – and in case you’re wondering, age 0 IS a thing. The project seeks to provide not just these young learners with educationally relevant and fun art experiences, but also to package the bountiful research data backing the importance of art to a child’s holistic development in such a way that it would be accessible to parents, educators and caregivers of Detroit.
This project is pretty much a consolidation of everything I’m passionate about : little humans (translation : kids) , art, education, and research, but there are moments during which I stop and wonder if they hadn’t chosen the wrong person for the job. The implications of what we are planning for are tremendous, and the mere thought of failure makes me want to shut my laptop down and retreat into apathy. But that’s where perspective kicks in, albeit usually after a whole thermos of coffee, and I am reminded that I am not doing this for myself, and in a field such as ECE, I must be doing this for the children. Coming up with new ideas while sitting in an office of giants in this field is daunting to say the least, and often I feel like a chicken on stilts amongst flamingoes. (If you’re wondering why I couldn’t have come up with a better analogy, you obviously haven’t seen that meme before, and you probably should).
Would I trade this for anything in the world though? Heck no.
I wouldn’t trade in the twenty minutes of waiting for a QLine that make my commuting buddies and I question its existence, because waiting for the QLine makes me aware that I actually HAVE commuting buddies. I wouldn’t trade in the malfunctioning hot water pump in UTowers, because my fellow commiserators remind me that I have more than one place in this whole building to go ‘home’ to. Neither would I trade in the construction soundtrack blaring through the office windows, because the noises remind me that I am in the middle of a city that is rebuilding itself, a city that hustles, and I am overwhelmingly lucky to be a part of it.
(unless the hustle consists of a right left right right left in which case I am just overwhelmingly uncoordinated and pose a physical danger to anyone who is a part of it) – DCBRP 2017 Inside Jokes pt 1.
Hi Jean. So this is the second time I’m trying to post a comment on your blog because last time it didn’t work but no matter I’ll say it again. I first want to take a moment to appreciate how funny you are and how fun this post was to read, so nice work. But alsooooo I really liked reading about the work you’re doing and the fact that you care so much about it. I think now more than ever it’s important to prioritize education and art is a huge part of that, so I really respect and admire the work you and Ayat are doing. The other message I got from this post is a reminder to appreciate where we are and what we have. I’m grateful you pointed that out because I know that once I’m comfortable in a setting it’s easy for me to find things to complain about or even just lose a sense of perspective, but reading this reminded me in a sense why I’m here and what I want to make out of this summer so for that, thank you.