Frog Blog (Aidan's Blog YDev 150)

 When reading This Book is Anti-Racist , I was reminded of my own identity struggles. I've never struggled with race, whether it's in terms of how it plays into my identity or how it causes me to be treated socially (something I understand that I am privileged to be able to say). But I have struggled time and time again with gender expression, and in the first pages of this book it's what was immediately brought to my mind as something I could relate the author's feelings to, and was compounded when the author began to explore these concepts themself. Overall, when reading This Book is Anti-Racist , I found a relatability that allowed me to empathize with the concepts around race explored in the book, and I was inspired by the confidence in identity the author demonstrates. This is an odd connection, but confidence in identity is always something I admire, and so it always sticks out as something big to me when I come across it. An artist that I've identified this i...

     When I entered high school, I was struggling in a lot of ways. Socially, I was behind most other kids because of at the time unrealized neurodivergencies, I was struggling with my grades for the same reasons, and I was (and still kind of am) experiencing a gender crisis. I really did not know who I was or what I wanted to be, and going into high school was an opportunity for me to hit the reset button at a new place with new people.     It really is hard for me to describe what Arts at the Capitol Theater Magnet High School is like. It's a very unique experience both in terms of curriculum- having all the basic building blocks of education effectively entirely abandoned and replaced with arts that aren't all that well taught either- as well as culturally, transitioning from a school where slurs for queer people were pretty regular and 9 times out of ten you wouldn't know a given student in the hallway, to being in wildly queer dominant space where ever...

 

     Though I'm no longer on track to be a teacher, I am still set to be and passionate about working with kids, and I strongly believe that the key value in improving kid's lives, skills, and own mental well-being is through strong relationships between guiding figures and children. This is, without a doubt, my biggest value: always be kind, patient, and supportive with children. It is so often what makes the difference in whether a kid makes themselves successful later in life, and also affects how they'll react to the generation after them. By being kind and maintaining strong relationships, you can set a whole lineage of kindness and encouragement to follow in your path.      Attached here is a link to an article discussing this very concept. In my own life, I've found something I often struggle with is conveying the tone I intend with my words and ideas in everyday conversation. With that in mind, something I always try to do with others is always see...