I've been working with kids so long, I've forgotten more experiences than most I've worked with will ever encounter. I am not an expert. I've come to know many people, in many fields, who believe their tenure, however long or short, gives them some entitlement to the thrown of all-knowing in their field. I could go on this route, but I am not an expert. I see people with a diploma taking on the role of molding kids into teens, teens into adults, and adults into productive workers in society, lack of a piece of paper, despite more years experience than they've been alive, has them making three times as much money. Again, I am not an expert. I listen to those with less than a decade of experience spout knowledge, based on Youtube videos and a handful of life experiences or classes, laughing at how little it has to do with real-life scenarios, then remind myself, I am not an expert. I know a lot of stuff about a lot of things and I know kids, their tendencies, their behaviors, and the who, what, why, and how they come about, but I am not an expert. I know more than many who claim expertise, even in fields I am only self-educated, but to claim expertise would be as foolish for me as it is for those that do, because I am not an expert. It has taken me many years to realize that expertise comes from the ability to realize that life and everything in it, is about adaptation. As children adapt to this ever-changing world, so too must we. As industries, environment, and culture changes, we too must adapt what we know to how things change and accept we do not know, we never will, and we are not experts. Life, its lessons, both good and bad, have not even made me an expert at adapting, The only thing I can claim is to be flexible to change and show a willingness to learn, constantly, realizing what is right this year, might very well be wrong as of next. We live in a world where we needed to tell people that hot coffee was hot, remind them on the lid, and hope they understood, What expert could have foreseen this? Every time we tell ourselves we are experts, we are simply saying "I have chosen to stop learning, adapting, and given up admitting I'm wrong." I am wrong every day. Does that make me an expert?
This was a post I wrote on Facebook after surprisingly not seeing any moaning about the Documentary by Jose Antonio Vargas, titled White People Dayyum! I just scrolled my timeline and not a single white person got their feelings hurt by White People. I unfortunately haven't seen it, but the number of fake accounts that popped up on twitter, tells me it was a damn good show. Here's the thing. If someone of color aka non-white says "White Privilege," are you offended? If you said yes, then you are exhibiting white privilege. It has nothing to do with how hard you work or study, how you stayed out of trouble, because here's the thing, that is entirely the point. Somewhere out there, there are 100 Black, Spanish, Native American, Arab, Asian, who worked and studied as hard as you and never got in trouble, but they don't have what you "earned" or achieved. Stop looking at the one person you know who isn't white that achieved as your benchmark. Loo
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