Growing up, I think the lens that shaped my perspective in classrooms growing up was my naiveness. I do believe that white privilege is something that certainly affects so many people and doesn’t show itself in communities with very sparse diversity. I believe being a white male in the catholic school system really made me blind to these issues or ways of thinking when it came to being analytical in an inclusive way. It made me think everyone was getting the same support at home as I was, was able to have the same opportunities for extracurriculars as myself, and shared the same viewpoints of myself when relating to personal experiences. Not being self aware is incredibly damaging not only to oneself, but to those we interact with. Having gained this self awareness through my years, I am determined to bring this into my classrooms and address in a way to engage my students. Making them feel bad for how privileged they have been can be damaging and cause more pushback than help. Challenging a student to see, acknowledge, and interpret this difference and act accordingly can make them more insightful and critically think about their approach to education and how they can benefit from it and make a difference themselves. Naivety is one of the largest crutches i had to overcome and I want to bring my experience and insights into the classroom to help students broaden their views.

The most relevant idea of “single story” perspective was when we were separated into Christian Ethics 9 and Health 9 depending on which schools we went to. The public school kids were taught about sexual health, safe practices, etc. while the catholic students were taught about abstinence  and how these ideas were reflected on by the bible. My issue with this is growing up in the catholic system, we were taught very little about sexual education but because we were deemed catholic, we were taught with this single perspective and that this was the correct way. Being put in a seperate class in high school that was supposed to be equivalent in learning outcomes but differed because of the beliefs placed in the catholic system seemed a little unfair to me. Everyone should be learning the same information about these issues especially in our society regardless of your background. Going forward, I was able to get different perspectives on the subjects through other classes which made me once again, more self aware. By no means do I think anyones truth is right or wrong in this scenario as we are all entitled to our own beliefs, but to have unequal learning opportunities based on a school decision seemed a little ridiculous to me. We all deserve equal education on all topics, no matter what walks of life we come from because we may not always agree, but we can always try to see from one another’s perspectives.

Throughout my time in school, I can only recall a few times we had mentions of citizenship or talking about what citizenship means. It wasn’t until really middle years or early high school when I can even recall addressing the issue. Our sovereignty from the British was a big topic for history in later years and the significance of our own identity. The problem with the way I learnt it, was that we got a very eurocentric view on citizenship that really began to mold an almost ignorant view of proper citizenship. Luckily coming form a family of immigrants, it was still easy to the struggles and difficulties there are when it comes to citizenship.

In school I was given a very personally oriented citizen with some teachers taking the initiative and pushing a Justice oriented agenda. Although I graduated nearly a decade ago, it was still extremely eurocentric with little coverage of common events or why they were happening. I admit, even the example we used in class was rather eye opening as I was aware of the situation, but not the underlying circumstances causing it. Having just a personally oriented view on citizenship really makes it hard to be a progressive society and help our students taktion themselves. It does try to promote volunteering and important qualities like compassion which makes them more community oriented, but we need to challenge students to think more critically really look deeper into the issues themselves. Engagement very much is a two way street and until we can get students to actively participate and engage themselves, the shift in orientation towards citizenship will be incredibly hard to change.