Learning, (Un)learning, & (Re)learning
“If we don’t have the mindset to continuously learn, and unlearn, and relearn, how will we be able to grow at a level that we are really serving what we’re meant to serve?”
This week in the Global Citizenship Education course, we had a guest speaker who works in peace education, focused on supporting leaders in active peace. The quote above is from her during the session. And, I so resonated with it - the work of lifelong learning is not just about an accumulation of facts or knowledge. It’s not just a layering on until you have a giant cake; rather, it’s more like Jenga. You build and you take away, you shift perspectives. You forget something and then remember it or you adjust a part of what you believe or know about a particular event or topic.
One of the other amazing points that she brought up was that seeing ourselves as humans first - as our first identity, then the other identities can really support a humanistic or global citizenship approach to living. She wasn’t suggesting giving up the other identities that form us - those are to be felt and acknowledged and celebrated vs. assimilated or eliminated - but if every human saw themselves and everyone else as human first, what would that do to move peace forward? It makes me think of adrienne maree brown’s or Krista Tippett’s references to “species level” thinking and acting.
That’s what I’m hoping to build with Liberation 101. A course that will be in its second iteration in a few weeks that builds and shifts. The content will largely remain the same, but as I go through my own learning journey, there will be adjustments. One of the big pieces that this course in particular is showing me is how Global Citizenship Education or just Global Citizenship as a concept can be woven into being a white anti-racist ally in America in 2025. The liberation journey is both individual and collective, which is a beautiful mirror to the concepts of GCE/GC. While GCE/GC have many frameworks and definitions, depending on what source you look towards, ultimately, a throughline is the local and the global. One is not given up for the other. They are integrated. That is so much like the liberation journey. I’ll leave you with a few more quotes that to me encapsulate how the personal is political, the internal work of lifelong learning that leads to liberation is connected to collective freedom, and how all of the isms are tied together - intersectionality is the name of the game.
“Difference is that raw and powerful connection from which our personal power is forged…Without community there is no liberation…But community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist.”
“You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man’s freedom. You can only be free if I am free.”
“The movement for black lives isn’t just about black people. Black liberation has never just been about black people. It’s been about a fight for our humanity, for our dignity.”
Speaking of learning: If you want to take a sneak peek, check out this link to get the
reading list for Liberation 101.
I’ll be using the blog and the newsletter (plus a little social media) to share my experiences and learnings from the courses throughout this diploma program. I plan to take what I learn and apply it to Liberation 101 and all of my offerings. I’m leaning into the lion heart of this whole experience.
Liberation 101 Back to School 2025 Cohort Key Dates:
Sept 1, 2025 - Registration Closes
*Sept 2, 2025 - Course Begins
Oct. 10, 2025 - Course Ends
*The Tuesday after Labor Day, let your learning commence!
