The Healing Power Of Education

Situating the African American learning experience within the stream of historic enslavement and hundreds of years of institutionalized racism, this timely book introduces antiracist foundations for teaching in the 21st century. The authors take a holistic approach that uses Afrocentricity to identify and address critical omissions and distortions in school curricula. Drawing on empirical findings from a high-performing 100% African American school, they identify what teachers and students recognize as successful features of the schools’ approach, including a unique learning environment, support systems, spiritual affirmations, evidences of Black education, a reframing of Afrocentricity, and education that promotes positive Black identity. This much-needed book demonstrates the healing power of education; provides evidence of social, emotional, and psychological transformation within the learning experience; and frames education as a tool for liberation. Book Features: Offers a clear chronological analysis of Black education in the United States and across the Diaspora.Includes the perceptions and experiences of students and teachers at a successful Afrocentric school. Provides the tools needed to teach multicultural histories in an antiracist way.Examines the benefits of Afrocentric curricula and the role of corrective history in promoting positive Black identity. Explores the intersections of precolonial history, student achievement, and Afrocentric education.

"Students of color are often left underserved and unrepresented in school curricula. This book focuses on African American students and the usefulness and importance of corrective education in reversing curricular fallacies. Additionally, it uncovers and explains the role that education can play in creating a more holistic learning experience for minority students. The Afrocentric school in this proposed book is high-performing, and outperforms the state. The book identifies what teachers and student recognize as supportive features of the school's approach, including: (a) a unique learning environment, (b) support systems, (c) spiritual affirmations, (d) evidences of Black education, (e) a reframing of Afrocentricity, and (f) education that promotes positive and transformative Black identity. In response to reviewers, the authors will expand their frame of reference to draw on evidence from other schools but will look deeply at one school and possible applications of its model in other settings"--

What would a school look like if it was designed with mental health in mind? Too many public schools look and feel like prisons, designed out of fear of vandalism and truancy. But we know that nurturing environments are better for learning. Access to nature, big classroom windows, and open campuses consistently reduce stress, anxiety, disorderly conduct, and crime, and improve academic performance. Backed by decades of research, Schools That Heal showcases clear and compelling ways--from furniture to classroom improvements to whole campus renovations--to make supportive learning environments for our children and teenagers. With invaluable advice for school administrators, public health experts, teachers, and parents Schools That Heal is a call to action and a practical resource to create nurturing and inspiring schools for all children.

Using the latest research, real-world examples, and a new theory of healthy development, this book explains Hip Hop culture's ongoing role in helping Black youths to live long, healthy, and productive lives. In The Healing Power of Hip Hop, Raphael Travis Jr. offers a passionate look into existing tensions aligned with Hip Hop and demonstrates the beneficial quality it can have empowering its audience. His unique perspective takes Hip Hop out of the negative light and shows readers how Hip Hop has benefited the Black community. Organized to first examine the social and historical framing of Hip Hop culture and Black experiences in the United States, the remainder of the book is dedicated to elaborating on consistent themes of excellence and well-being in Hip Hop, and examining evidence of new ambassadors of Hip Hop culture across professional disciplines. The author uses research-informed language and structures to help the reader fully understand how Hip Hop creates more pathways to health and learning for youth and communities.

Hope and Healing in Urban Education proposes a new movement of healing justice to repair the damage done by the erosion of hope resulting from structural violence in urban communities. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from around the country, this book chronicles how teacher activists employ healing strategies in stressed schools and community organizations, and work to reverse negative impacts on academic achievement and civic engagement, supporting their students to become powerful civic actors. The book argues that healing a community is a form of political action, and emphasizes the need to place healing and hope at the center of our educational and political strategies. At once a bold, revealing, and nuanced look at troubled urban communities as well as the teacher activists and community members working to reverse the damage done by generations of oppression, Hope and Healing in Urban Education examines how social change can be enacted from within to restore a sense of hope to besieged communities and counteract the effects of poverty, violence, and hopelessness.

Vocal health tips, stories from the tour bus, and action items to improve your voice and boost your self-confidence from an award-winning musician and life coach Performing with David Bowie, surviving the murky depths of the music business, enduring a painful divorce, and making the first music video in outer space, award-winning recording artist Emm Gryner has navigated through life’s highs and lows using a secret compass: singing. Her voice, and her desire to express herself in music, has been a constant: from the early days of playing in bands while growing up in a small town, to playing arena rock shows and stadiums. Across these years and on many travels, she’s discovered the human voice to be an unlikely guide, with the power to elevate and move people closer to authentic living. This book is about that discovery: part study in the art of singing, part guide to finding one’s voice, and part memoir. This book is a must-have for anyone who knows they should be singing.

The book we need NOW to avoid a social recession, Murthy’s prescient message is about the importance of human connection, the hidden impact of loneliness on our health, and the social power of community. Humans are social creatures: In this simple and obvious fact lies both the problem and the solution to the current crisis of loneliness. In his groundbreaking book, the 19th surgeon general of the United States Dr. Vivek Murthy makes a case for loneliness as a public health concern: a root cause and contributor to many of the epidemics sweeping the world today from alcohol and drug addiction to violence to depression and anxiety. Loneliness, he argues, is affecting not only our health, but also how our children experience school, how we perform in the workplace, and the sense of division and polarization in our society. But, at the center of our loneliness is our innate desire to connect. We have evolved to participate in community, to forge lasting bonds with others, to help one another, and to share life experiences. We are, simply, better together. The lessons in Together have immediate relevance and application. These four key strategies will help us not only to weather this crisis, but also to heal our social world far into the future. Spend time each day with those you love. Devote at least 15 minutes each day to connecting with those you most care about. Focus on each other. Forget about multitasking and give the other person the gift of your full attention, making eye contact, if possible, and genuinely listening. Embrace solitude. The first step toward building stronger connections with others is to build a stronger connection with oneself. Meditation, prayer, art, music, and time spent outdoors can all be sources of solitary comfort and joy. Help and be helped. Service is a form of human connection that reminds us of our value and purpose in life. Checking on a neighbor, seeking advice, even just offering a smile to a stranger six feet away, all can make us stronger. During Murthy’s tenure as Surgeon General and during the research for Together, he found that there were few issues that elicited as much enthusiastic interest from both very conservative and very liberal members of Congress, from young and old people, or from urban and rural residents alike. Loneliness was something so many people have known themselves or have seen in the people around them. In the book, Murthy also shares his own deeply personal experiences with the subject--from struggling with loneliness in school, to the devastating loss of his uncle who succumbed to his own loneliness, as well as the important example of community and connection that his parents modeled. Simply, it’s a universal condition that affects all of us directly or through the people we love—now more than ever.