Tuesday's guest speaker featured Fatima Fakih with a Critical Consciousness Activity around Literacy.
Using a 4” square of paper and a blunt pencil with no eraser, members were asked to write a paragraph describing their favourite place on one side and draw a picture of that place on the other. In the discussion that followed, it was determined that the small space and the blunt pencil made the task very difficult. Fatima then went on to tell the story of Omar Ali, a little boy she met as a member of the Vocational Training Team to Tanzania. Omar was attempting to do his school work with a very short, blunt pencil which he was sharpening with his teeth. Seeing his frustration, Fatima gave him a new pencil. Omar beamed with joy with his gift which may have sparked envy in the other students. Fatima went on to explain how potential is limited when resources are limited and not to underestimate the power of small things. As a teacher in Windsor, she has established a rule in her classroom, “Use the pencil until it is a stub.” Fatima then takes the stubs, frames them and sells the “picture” to raise funds to provide school materials in Tanzania. She is currently in the process of writing a children’s book telling Omar’s story.