Emerging Out: Philadelphia's "What's Your Story?" Project

There’s still much work to understand the school-community nexus and how the complicated stories of economic and neighborhood development affect cultural community ecoystems, as well as the learning ecosystems that make up a community. In this project out of Philadelphia, we meet a classroom of students and teachers who found a way to take their stories of self-discovery and create a new platform for agency and voice.

“People expect student work, especially from our most marginalized communities, that either projects overt
 positivity or evokes pity. But
 this does not accurately reflect 
the complex lives our students 
live. It is not the burden of our 
students to uplift others; the 
beauty and depth of their sto
ries stand on their own. Whether in a circle inside the classroom or on the wall of a barbershop up the street, being heard is critical to our students. We need a thousand creative ways for them and their powerful work to reverberate beyond our school walls.”

Read more at Rethinking Schools.