How the old factory model of education and the workplace is alive and well
Something I've been thinking about is how I managed to go through my entire education and graduate from college without any real idea of my true talents and strengths. I only knew the things I was good at that other people and systems wanted me to be good at - in other words, being a good student. You don't have to have any real self-knowledge to be a "good student" in the traditional sense. In fact, all too often, passion and curiosity get in the way. I chafed at the restraints and worked outside of them as much as I could, but I had to fight every step of the way and it was exhausting.
Because more than not having any real idea of my true talents and strengths was the fact that no one was ever interested in helping me find out. Looking back, I can see that many of the signs were there, with no one willing to see them. And yes, I believe my identity as a young Asian woman played a role in that, but what I see is that many/most adults to this day still have no idea what it is that they are good at outside of the boxes they've been put in (acknowledging that some boxes are more spacious than others).
Our systems are designed to judge people by how well they fit into predefined hierarchies. It's capitalism and the old factory model of not just education but the workplace and of life that is still so dominant.
Inclusion is not just about belonging, but about belonging by getting to be your authentic self, at its full potential.
What if instead we looked at what people can bring to the table and then helped them to find or create a place for themselves, in both our schools and our workplaces?
It's been a strange and in some ways serendipitous confluence of events - the pandemic, the growth for Co-Creating Inclusion, and my oldest child going into middle school. I'm seeing more clearly the connections between our education system and the workplace, and how both perpetuate systems of oppression that, although they do not harm us all equally, harm us all.
I could see it coming - that's one of my strengths. I can absorb data, identify patterns and gaps, and use it to project out into the future, although it's not always conscious or articulated. It's funny, in many ways I have designed my career and business to give me the learning, tools and experience that I had a feeling I would need to be able to advocate for my kids.
I see what is happening in schools, and I see what happens when those dynamics grow up and end up in the workplace. It's a straight line between the two, and not a very long one either. The more I see, the more determined I am than ever to disrupt these patterns at every level that I can.
I'm ready.
Banner by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash.
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