James Meredith, and Induction, and the Delta, Oh My!

I have officially survived the first few days of Induction, and I'm feeling more and more excited to get back in the classroom and start teaching and building community!  This past week has been a bit of a whirlwind, so let me quickly recap the amazing things that have happened at Induction so far.  To clarify what Induction is, it is basically the week before Institute (where we teach summer school) where the other Delta corps members and I learn about the Delta, the history of the area, and the communities we will be working in.  On the first day (June 5th) after moving in, we all gathered in the Balogna Performing Arts Center for the Induction/Welcome to the Delta kick off.  Here, we were able to get a glimpse into the role Teach for America plays in the community and the obstacles that students in the Delta face on a daily basis.  Aside from Teach for America alumni and staff, we also had the privilege of hearing from the Senator of Mississippi, a brilliant high school senior girl, and James Meredith.  I knew that James Meredith was important based on the roaring applause and standing ovation he got, but I was embarrassed to say that I didn't know who he was.  I realized that James Meredith was the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi.  Along with this, he was also very involved in the Civil Rights Movement in the Delta.  With this said, it was an extreme honor and privilege to hear him speak about the issues of education today.  It is sad to me to think that in our country the geographic region a child is born in to will determine the quality of education they receive.  It is one thing to hear about the civil rights movement and learn about in school, but to actually see people involved in the movement who are still alive today was a pretty amazing thing.

After the opening day we started Induction, which basically gives corps members the opportunity to learn about the region, movements taking place, how to build community, and diversity/identity.  The groups are all extremely interesting, but going from 5:45am to 8:00pm (this includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner) makes for a pretty busy day.  I basically get back to my dorm room and just want to be mellow and relax a bit.  The sessions today were especially interesting, the main reason being that I got to see inside my school!  Teach for America set up community panels, so they bussed us out to a few different schools and then we got to meet people from our community and ask them questions.  It was AMAZING!!!  I was excited about my school and all the work they are doing to give back to their community and help their students, and now that I have heard more great things, I am even more excited!  It is so great to hear about the school and county by someone who actually lives in the community and is an integral part of it.  So I am literally falling asleep as I type this, so sorry for the short post.  I'll write more tomorrow!