Learning Is Part of Our Inherent Nature
One of the many wonderful articles in Black Re-emergence No. 14
Several years ago, I visited my one-hundred-year-old great grand uncle whom I had never met before. His mind was sharp (clear), so I asked him if he remembered stories of the enslavement that were handed down by his grandparents. He told me several. When I discharged with tears and shaking, I told him that it was okay and to continue the stories.
One of the stories had to do with the wife of the plantation owner. She slipped out of bed when he was asleep and went to the room where the children of the house servants slept and taught them how to read and write. Inevitably she was caught. She and the children were whipped in front of the household and other enslaved residents and were told that this is what would happen to them if they were caught learning to read and write. Knowing how to read and write was not necessary for picking cotton or cutting cane and so on.
A young man in one of my fundamentals classes stated that he had not completed high school because he hated school. He had unsuccessfully taken the GED (General Educational Development) test several times and was giving up. He attended a GED preparation class but found it boring and left. I purchased a GED preparation booklet and had several sessions with him as we worked through the booklet. We used directions such as, “I can’t do it,” “I don’t want to do this,” “Learning is inherent to all human beings; I am a human being.” There was crying, shaking, laughter, and yawning discharge. He took the exam and passed it. He has completed one year in a community college.
Hurts from our enslaved ancestors can be healed with discharge.
Pasadena, California, USA
(Present Time 205, October 2021)