[PeDAGoG] A shout out to Melanie Bush

Sat May 28 12:04:31 CEST 2022

Thanks for this fascinating discussion, Pallavi and Melanie - would you be willing to share details about this assignment? I'd be interested in trying it out with my students. 
Best, 
Vandana 

From: "Melanie Bush" <melanie.e.l.bush at gmail.com> 
To: "PeDAGoG" <gta-pedagog at lists.ourproject.org> 
Cc: "Global Tapestry of Alternatives" <gta at lists.riseup.net> 
Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2022 5:42:05 AM 
Subject: Re: [PeDAGoG] A shout out to Melanie Bush 

Pallavi, I am moved by your experience and your generosity. Every time I use this assignment the students go from being extremely skeptical - including saying things like what do I have to offer and how could one hour matter - to being opened to affirmations of worth and possibility. Perhaps we might do a joint essay? 

We've already begun exploring how we might match our students with each other in a future time bank experience. I feel certain we'll figure out how to do that for an extraordinary experience. 

I'll also report that from the PeDaGoG network, Sayan and I connected. One of his colleagues at WITS CDS spoke with my Ethnicity class this spring (as did Devika btw), and I spoke with folks at the center yesterday and we'll be meeting up again later today. Also met with Patrick Bond yesterday, Ashish, who I believe you know well. 

Building forward with inspiration from all of you. Thank you Ashish and the GTA core team for all your efforts in pulling us together. Very grateful to be a part of this initiative. 

Blessings all, 
Melanie 

On Sat, May 28, 2022 at 11:31 AM Ashish Kothari < [ mailto:ashishkothari at riseup.net | ashishkothari at riseup.net ] > wrote: 

That's amazing and inspiring, Pallavi! And thanks Melanie! This is so much the essence of this kind of forum and network ... and it probably happens every once in a while but is not always reported back. In the Vikalp Sangam process we get such news occasionally, of bilateral or multilateral linkages made at the Sangam confluences or online, resulting in some wonderful collaborations and actions, and it then all seems worth the constant emailing, phoning, and following up! :) 

It would be great to get one or more of the students to write about this experience, which we can carry on vikalp sangam website .. and perhaps they can also publish in one of the youth magazines? And/or you writing about it ... with a bit more elaboration on what they tried, how they were transformed etc ? 

(I am copying in here also the GTA core team to let them know of this). 

ashish 

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On 28/05/22 1:09 pm, Pallavi Varma Patil wrote: 

BQ_BEGIN

Dear PeDAGoG Members, 

I wanted to share a recent interesting and meaningful experience that came about directly as a result of this network. 

You are aware (mostly thanks to my own emails) that Sujit and I offered the first session in the new webinar series called 'Learnings for Alternative Futures' (designed in collaboration with several valuable networks) by presenting our initiative, 'Living Utopias' on April 1, 2022. It was a session with a small group and we had a very useful conversation amongst the participants. One of them , Melanie Bush (more on her in [ https://bit.ly/3MWczsB | our google sheet ] ) reached out to us in the following week and we had a lovely conversation about pedagogies and experiential learning- making abstract values more tangible. 

And so I learnt from Melanie (with her generous sharing of ideas ) how to set up an assignment around a Time Bank in a classroom space . I was skeptical but my students in an Indian University (36 of them) rose to the occasion and exceeded the brief and more. They paired up on their own and shared their skills and gifts. So from bike rides to coffee evenings to cooking, a lake walk, a photoshoot, braiding hair, to watching a film together, playing childhood games - they completed their time sharing tasks in myriad ways. 

And just like that my University class transformed like magic . We had a whole unit on Solidarity Economics with the usual reading list but now each one of them came back to class with a different mind set towards learning. They were so much more engaged as participants in ideas around Living Utopias. Without ANY exception I had 36 reflections that spoke about the huge impact a small assignment made on the possibilities that friendships and connections bring, 

It was difficult to read their sensitive reflections without tearing up. These students are in the age group of 22-27 years. Coming out of COVID closures, and increased polarisation in the world around them, several are struggling to make and maintain real physical comradeship and friendships. Many are also very despondent about the future. 
In this context, thanks to such a simple assignment, I got to connect with my students in a very different and humane way. 

I wanted to publicly thank Melanie in this forum for this impromptu collaboration. Following our webinar was Dan Baron's fantastic session and a 3rd webinar in the series is on its way. I hope what is now set rolling continues and we do not stop soon. 

Because look how New York affected Bangalore!. 

Best, 
Pallavi 

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