Heavy Game: A #SchoolOfIndigenousLearning

Peace! By now you might have heard that we’re opening a School of Indigenous Learning in Atlanta, y’all probably wondering what that means. That means we gonna being outdoors, hiking, camping, learning how to grow food. That’s important, we’re gonna be learning quite a few things that could be considered Indigenous learning, doing some outdoor learning, it’s a school without walls. We gonna be ourselves here. We’re starting with a middle school program because my child is a middle schooler. We got a bathroom, idk why I’m starting there, but it’s important!
We doing it in a home, not some cruddy basement, it’s actually a very nice basement. So nice we gonna call it the Ground Floor. It’s been a work in progress if you been keeping up with what we been doing in Atlanta and we’ve made it far. We got open areas with beautiful bay windows that still could use come development, we gonna make a studio in there doin art and all kinds of projects in there.
That means we will need electricians, carpenters, painters, and volunteers, also educators, and full time staff too, but right now we looking for volunteers. We got a lot of space, the ground floor we’ll have some tables to use for desks and then do presentations. You’ll not find a school like this anywhere in the country, or anywhere else in the world, but you should. Cuz it’s a school of Indigenous Learning, that means teaching black and brown students that their inner genius is in their Genes.
Teach them that they are the original people, which means they are the origin of all. And that we got connections across cultures and across history that mean something, that we’re gonna revisit and revive. We gonna renew all kinds of old traditions, not just how to grow food or how to make art. But how to weld, how to sew. Yeah, the girls gonna learn how to cut hair, well teach the boys how to do locs, sitting there twisting hair all day long. Ain’t gonna be no fidgit toys we got something for that. We gonna have an amazing experience, I’ve done this for 15 years. If you don’t know, before I was known for books people knew me as Dr. Sujan Das an Atlanta public school educator, 15 years on the Westside of Atlanta. I love my community, I taught art for a year so I’m grabbing up markers and easels now. Art is a big thing for me now, we gonna be filling up these walls with art, AND we’re gonna be helping the students learn about family based businesses and entrepreneurship. That’s also an indigenous skill to be able to get it out the mud and do for self. I’m not talking about digital currency I’m talking about real value, show them how to write a book, how to make a painting, how to sew a dress then sell it. All that, then the kids can show us things we as adults not up on like social media marketing and online promotions.
There’s so many beautiful things we can accomplish, I’m excited to learn how to do electrical work, don’t worry we gonna have the adults who are certified there teaching, we not just in here doin whatever, Na don’t think we unprofessional just cuz I got a hole in my shirt, I did get a doctorate in education, I’m certified as an educational leader and I did a great job for them 15 years, teacher of the year and all that good stuff. But you know, I’ve always been a rebellious soul, always wanted to go against the curriculum, always wanted to counter what they was doing with them children, because it was punitive and not really meant to bring out their potential. Educational means to ‘bring out’ what’s already within and we want to bring out the children’s greatness, cuz the babies are the greatest.
We gonna do some amazing things in here, we’ll provide a vegan meal plan with plenty exercise, learning not just martial arts but culinary arts, we gonna learn language arts, music, everything. Not to mention a ton history, but history as a form of applied science , we gonna use our past as a way to inform our future. We’ll raise up the leaders and administrators of the future and teach them about their divine being and work from that as a foundation, so it ain’t even a question where we going from there. We gonna start with 8-10 families who will trust me with that process for the first year. We gonna start off with a middle school that’s the level of education I want My daughter to experience and I’m gonna open up this space to provide it to your family, ultimately we’ll be able to let in more people, but it’s gonna be way less people than are interested. I already know it’s gonna be a ton of people who want to do this. People in other cities, states, other countries that will hear about this and think it sounds amazing, once they learn about my history, the curriculum I’ve developed, the community work ive done they’re gonna be even More interested cuz then there’s reputation a little bit of integrity to it, ‘Oh! And he’s trustworthy! Been out there doin it for 20 years.“
We’re gonna build this program out so it’s scalable, and to that end I need help. Educational leaders that know what it takes to build this school in YOUR city. As we build out Year One and that can be the pilot program the following year in another city. I wanna grow it out so within Year Two we can do elementary school program, and the year after that younger children, and by Year 4 we’re gonna do secondary school where we can really bring in not just the arts education, but trades education where they actually learn things electrical, low-voltage which means audio/visual, security , cameras, satellite technology, coding, things like that. Those are trades you can take anywhere and always be gainfully employed and independent.
That is the kind of stuff we’ll teach here, it’s gonna be dynamic and grow, but I want you to be patient with me because Right now I’m only one man, I’m a single father, a solo-preneur, and an educator so this is the best thing I can offer, not to just my own family but to other families. Just be patient with me because my goal is to offer it to everybody and we have a great student/teacher ratio. We can teach those having difficulty in certain areas, it’s not just for the highest of achievers, we’re looking for the highest of standards, with the highest aspirations. We want to interview parents and children and they say, “I want a better life , I want to be great!” Oh yeah we can work with you wherever you at, with a low student/teacher ratio we can accomplish that. But don’t be mad cuz you can’t get in just yet, it’s gonna be a process I still haven’t started hiring and interviewing teachers yet but the goal is to grow. So if you’ve been helping me with the process be patient while we work it in Atlanta Year 1 then we can expand it in Year 2. Maybe before that who knows what kind of leadership we’ll bring together doing this thing. I just know when you taking care of the children who don’t wanna help with that, who don’t want to be a part of that? I see it turning out beautifully. Wait til we really put it together.
If you in Atlanta and you want to help volunteer find me. @drsupremeunderstanding or @soilatl. Reach out to me, let me know how you can contribute cuz we need you, the babies need you, and the whole world needs you. Peace.

2 thoughts on “Heavy Game: A #SchoolOfIndigenousLearning”

  1. Peace,

    Knowledge is power, and through education we empower the youth that is our future. I am front and center to assist with this mission beloved. Our people suffer from a lack of knowledge. We need to enrich the youth of the world with the tools that will aid them moving forward. Funny this morning I was studying Ivan Van Sertima “They came before columbus”. His body of work & series is a scholarly masterpiece. No authors strike such nerves, except Anthony Browder, or Naim Akbar. Dr. Supreme is like the apex, like the capstone, the successor to great authors, thinkers, and educators. My pops was big on education, he held a masters in eduction and Social Work. He always said “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

  2. Peace,

    I had to rotate or circle back to add/shine more light on these matters. Today I was teaching on the correlation between mathematics using the fibonacci system or golden mean ratio. How it’s said that this mathematical formula can be found woven in creation, as well as used by great architects & master builders. Mathematics is everything and we must use our mathematical theology to secure some benefit while we live.

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