Hi Joshua, thanks for sharing your story. I'm in a Master's of Education program. One of my colleagues who's a teacher read the book that you mentioned and did a presentation about it. Here's what I shared with her (below). Did you have a family member or teacher who encouraged you to be a writer and to dream a dream beyond basketball? “The best way to get the essence a human being is to actually support them for what they love doing. That’s when you’re gonna get the best human being.” - Joshua Johnson Hi ___, your presentation inspired me to do some additional digging/searching…Low and behold I found Joshua Johnson, while excavating. Although he is not featured in the Last Shot book, he was a student and baller at Abraham Lincoln and met the author Darcy Frey. I think that all inner-city sports programs - if not the entire school - should show his story to their students. He provides a first-hand, unique perspective that many children don’t get to hear. Or if they hear it, they may feel slighted if the type of information that Joshua shares comes from someone close to them or their families who often don’t’ want to HEART IT!!! Many don’t want their one-in-million/”last-shot” dreams to be pounced on/discouraged. I love what Joshua says in the above quote. Isn’t that one of the messages that we want families and educators to get? That students need to be met where they ARE , engaged, motivated, and mentored for “what they love doing” and then some?!*~! Side bar: I wonder if Darcy Frey gave Joshua any credit in the book for generously giving him a tour of their school. I’m amazed that his recent film only has 28 hits - it should be viral. -Bren 10/11/14
I love this. I use the education of power dynamics to talk about sexual violence prevention with children and youth. Great video, great examples, I'm diggin this.
So Lee, do you think these people are trying to make you feel bad when they ask you questions like "do you speak Vietnamese?"? I think they subconsciously want to put you in a box to better understand you, like all of us. They may ask these questions to understand you little by little, or simply to have a nice conversation. Feedback?
It's the thread of conversation not the individual questions that are most striking. Sure if the ask that and I answer honestly and they accept it that's one thing. As they should. But usually they do not accept the answer and turn the discussion into a condemnation of my lack of asian-ness. That tells me that subconsciously they do not want to learn. That tells me that they want to put me in a box and make me stay there.
It is a good question- also something I hadn't mentioned was that people actually get upset sometimes and the questions become demands. Instead of, 'do you know vietnames?' It becomes, 'you must learn vietnamese. You must go to vietnam.' But it's only for their satisfaction, to appease their vision of who I'm supposed to be, not mine.
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Thanks so much, Corey. I'm a close friend of your Dad's. I'm proud of you! I went to Kenya a number of years ago, and had a wonderful experience with the children that I cherish still.
Yes....very positive! #TeamBahamas There's still hope for our generation...and as simple as this video may be, it can be a big encouragement to a lot of young people trying to find their path in today's world!
