Mialisa Bonta and Sarah Spieldenner
Recorded
May 17, 2014
41:09 minutes
0:00 / 0:00
Id:
ddc001572
Description
Mialisa (42) talks to Sarah (54) talk about their experiences at Friends Seminary School. Mialisa was Sarah's student and tells Sarah of the incredible impact Sarah had on her development of sense of self. Mialisa and Sarah discuss teaching risks when challenging students and pushing boundaries, as well as needing to develop a sense of trust to do so. They each reflect on the safe space Friends Seminary provided them.Subject Log / Time Code
Mialisa tells Sarah about reading The Bluest Eyes in her class and still remembers the first words. She even brought the book with her because of the impact it made on her. She learned about her identity as a woman of color from a white woman.
Sarah talks about how Friends Seminary helped her develop a sense of self and feel grounded which she carried throughout her elite education. Sarah talks about what the role of a school is in the context of teaching at Friends having grown up in East Harlem.
Sarah talks about helping kids use words to say whats really on their minds because words have been used to build up walls. Sarah remembers some breakthroughs with students and talks about the fact that sometimes thats not something they want to know, like a black teen being best friends with a white teen yet having avoided discussion about race.
Mialisa tells Sarah how she helped her being an individual in a school that focused on equlizing, like some students hiding their wealth or poverty. Mialisa then tells Sarah about a time she helped build her sense of self when going through a tough times with friends in high school.
Mialisa talks about feeling it was random the way her teacher picked her to apply for private school when she was in the 3rd grade and upon reflection it makes her angry that other students didn't have the same chance.
Sarah believes learning is not "safe" if you're really learning , that there are risks, but that you have to trusts the people you learn with.
Sarah just informed the school that she will not be returning to teach after learning within the last 48 hours about a job opportunity as a chaplain and tells Mialisa how important it was to hear from her today.
Participants
- Mialisa Bonta
- Sarah Spieldenner