The following three articles are reports given at a May 2015 gather-in, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, at which thirty of the International Liberation and Commonality Reference Persons talked about their work. To see all the reports, go to <www.rc.org/publication/ilcrp/contents>, on the RC website.
This Work Is for Everyone
Hi, I’m Marilyn Robb. I’m from Trinidad and Tobago, presently living in Aruba. I bring the Caribbean flavor to RC. I am the International Commonality Reference Person for Educational Change.
One of the things I like about the job is that I get to reference everybody. I keep reminding everybody that working for educational change is not just for schoolteachers. It is true that our big vision, our ultimate goal, is to create schools in which there are no oppressions. A number of oppressions operate in school, and all the different groups in school—teachers, students, social workers, administrators, anybody who’s connected to school—experience these oppressions. So there’s a lot of work to do there. Yes, that’s true. However, the other part of it is that every one of us who experienced school or in some way had a learning experience acquired hurts. And we all need the opportunity to discharge those hurts and reclaim our intelligence.
With that as our vision, we do this work in three different directions: First, we work to make the RC Communities a safe place for all those who are working in schools to come and discharge, re-energize, be supported, and reclaim their own joy of teaching and learning. Second, we keep building the strength of the RC Communities and the solid grounding in Co-Counseling that will give every Co-Counselor the chance to reclaim that great intelligence that we know we were all created with. And third, a lot of people are out there doing a lot of good work changing schools, so we figure out how to support them, how to bring them RC.
I invite you all to reclaim your own intelligence and to make your RC Community a safe and solid place for everybody to be able to do that. Thank you.
Santa Cruz, Aruba
(Present Time 185, October 2016)