Part III : An American Educator's Thoughts on Girl Rising

As the credits started to roll, applause from the audience started to ripple through The Kentucky Theatre.  Attendees at our Lexington screening of Girl Rising were moved by the creative storytelling and the startling statistics presented in the film.  A few people asked me "what's next?"  Others tweeted praise for the opportunity to learn about the issues and the need to bring change.

If you've been reading my blog posts, you already know that I have been moved by this film, and you also know how I've been working to make sure my community had an opportunity to see the film because I have hope that my community will also be moved and will take action to change lives and policies that impact education both in our country and around the world.

One school district over an hour away from Lexington loaded up 49 girls and brought them to the screening.  These girls were curious as they entered the beautiful and historic theater and were attentive and emotional as they watched the film.  I sat behind a row of girls who were shaking their heads when they saw the story of Yasmin from Egypt as written by Mona Eltahaway. Eltahaway uses her journalism experience and expertise to share Yasmin's story, with a hope that "education will be the ultimate reinvention for her."  My hope for the girls from Kentucky who watched the film is that they, too, will recognize the importance of education and that they will use their education to make a difference in the world.

Teenage girls were not the only attendees at the film screening, there were also educators and community members from Lexington and the surrounding areas.  Some said they attended because they are huge fans of the magazine Cake & Whiskey and heard about the viewing through the C&W Facebook page.  Others heard about the event via twitter or newspaper.  I knew many of the attendees through my circle of friends and colleagues, but there were also just as many people who I didn't know but must believe they care about the issues of equity in education and that's what drove them to be part of our rainy evening downtown at the Kentucky Theatre.

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Thanks for reading the third in my series of posts about Girl Rising.  If you missed the first two posts you can read about how I shared the film with my pre-service teachers here or you can read text that was omitted from what I wrote for the magazine article here.

If you are planning to host your own screening, there are many resources available to assist you on the Girl Rising website, and I'll also share my opening remarks from Wednesday night.

What can you do?


• Sign up to be a community organizer to bring the Girl Rising film to your area

• Volunteer your time at an organization aimed at impacting girls’ education

• Take part in a book study reading about lives of girls in developing countries

• Donate money to the Girl Rising Campaign

• Share stories and get the message out to make sure people are exposed to what’s happening globally

• Blog about social change and taking action

• Visit girlrising.com to learn more about arranging a screening for your community, business, non-profit, church, or school

Thoughts on Being an Educator and a Mom

 Since before he could read fluently, my now nine year old son, Isaac, has been interested in writing.  He keeps journals, writes lists, creates stories with his Lego characters, and creates scenarios to share with me in conversation.

Unfortunately, with increasing pressure for students to perform well on standardized assessments, and with Kentucky’s abolishment of writing portfolios as part of the assessment and accountability system, writing is often demoted to worksheets, quizzes on the computer during writing time, practice for the state’s On-Demand Writing assessment, contrived personal narratives, and writing sentences for each spelling word.   

Experiences for our children can be much more than this though, if we are thoughtful with our approaches and we continue to use our voices to emphasize the importance of creativity in education.  At the 2012 National Council for Teachers of English Annual Convention, I had the joy of hearing Sir Ken Robinson speak on the importance of creativity.  He went as far to say “creativity is as important as literacy.”  I believe this statement and think we should use our voices as parents and as educators to remind our community members and policymakers that we need to promote creativity by letting students study and explore topics that interest them.  We need to allow more time for creating, performing, dreaming, and thinking.

Thankfully, Isaac has a teacher this year who is interested in helping students develop as better writers and thinkers.  It’s a hard job as a public school teacher, and I speak from experience, but I also know the importance of encouraging students to write about topics which interest them.   To encourage this interest, I recently arranged for Isaac’s class to Skype with a nine year old author (Eva) from Bismarck, North Dakota.  

Below is a video clip from Isaac’s experience Skyping with Eva.  In the interest of my personal blog showing only my own child and Eva, the video has been edited.  We enter the video after Eva asked the class if there were any writers, artists, or dancers in the class.  (Side note--I love her focus on the arts as a whole—fits perfectly with promoting the importance of kids performing, creating, and dreaming)   Isaac is answering her question by describing the way he creates stories with his Lego characters.  Eva confidently affirms his approach to writing and proceeds to answer questions from Isaac and his classmates. 

It’s my hope that creative experiences such as this will become more a regular part of all classes, not just for my own children but for all children.  Eva's mom, Gwyn Ridenhour, has this same hope, and she uses her expertise and experience to promote more creative opportunities for children in North Dakota.  By collaborating with others, listening to children, and using our voices, our hope will be realized.