Of Value
Yesterday a few things happened that had me thinking about what is of value- not only to me but to society.
Values are such intangible concepts that often people take them for granted just like they would take people for granted. We just assume some set of values would help guide us or our environment so there’s not much use in thinking about it right? Well not really.
I think of value often. An ethical inclusive pedagogy is what guides my teaching practice and my educational work. I am always thinking of how to make spaces more inclusive and accessible- because this is what I value.
I decided to make a mental list of other things I value (because I love lists) and these are the first few that came out:
Time
Friends
Space
Food
I realized that all of those things on the list are things that one would have privilege to possess. I have said in a previous blog that having time to reflect is a privilege. But also having friends or a community to rely on is also something that not everyone has- along with stable access to food or water for example.
These are some heavy important thoughts for a Friday morning. I guess the point I’m trying to make is that if you have a set of values it’s equally important to find out how /if you are putting those values into practice.
I started the semester saying that I was going to try to write 1000 words a day M-Th. I feel I have not necessarily meet that mark over the past week and a half. Life often gets in the way of words or blogs but I’ve also been working on some abstracts for things that are also words on a page. I see value in putting words on a page and I want to continue this practice and hopefully keep up the word count I set for myself.
There’s definitely different ways to define value and you need to find out what it means for you. And maybe a mental list of what you value is an important way to check in with how you are feeling, how you are working, and how you are navigating your space.
I want to end this blog by bringing to your attention that today is orange shirt day where I work and in many colleges and universities. Here is a little information about orange shirt day taken from
where you can find more info.
“Orange Shirt Day is a legacy of the St. Joseph Mission (SJM) residential school commemoration event held in Williams Lake, BC, Canada, in the spring of 2013. It grew out of Phyllis' story of having her shiny new orange shirt taken away on her first day of school at the Mission, and it has become an opportunity to keep the discussion on all aspects of residential schools happening annually.”
If your place of work doesn’t have an orange shirt day you may want to think about having one and to open up that conversational space more regularly.
Hope you all have good weekends!
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