Zehara Eckert
Azar Nafisi said it best, imagining “a world that runs parallel to the real one” (Nafisi). This quote captures Nafisi’s challenge to her readers to be open minded, daring, exploring the unknown and always being in the state of searching. It reminds me that curiosity is a crucial component of imagination. My imagination has allowed me to begin to understand other people’s experience by giving me a view I never knew existed or by allowing me to place myself in another person’s experience or shoes. Our imagination allows us to see people from different lenses as we discussed in class. Being able to distinguish and understand pre-established notions from the real thing in front of us is made possible through our imagination. Holding on to my own identity as I regard others and the world gives me a way to compare my experiences with others in a cultural and historical context. It also helped me to work better with the MCCS students. I can try to imagine how they might see me or others in my class through their different lenses.
I found the quote “Not making home feel like home” (Nafisi) just fascinating, yet complex to digest. I had difficulty trying to apply this quote to my life; but I understand what the author is trying to say. Nafisi is warning us to not feel too comfortable in a certain culture of identity because you could easily lose connection to these “homes”. For example, Nafisi couldn’t identify with her own culture (Persian) because the way she looked, the way she acted, her beliefs and desires as a woman, writer and a teacher were alien to Persians. Others told her she did not belong to the culture and she was merely a creation of western imperialists’ imaginations. During bloody crusades against western imperialists and their support for the rights of women, minorities, and individual freedom, she lost connection to her home “America”.
“How is it that under the worst political and social conditions, during war and revolution, in jail, and in concentration camps, most victims turn towards works of imagination” (Nafisi). I believe that bad situations force us to imagine better things. It’s our human way to keep our hopes alive, because without imagination we would not be able to envision the future and what we want to live for. Fictional stories don’t save us from torture, the brutality of dictators nor the cruelties of life itself, but they do allow us to imagine the highest achievements of mankind, including beauty, memory, and harmony. Imagining these accomplishments fuels us to survive.
Just like New Urban Arts School, community art programs with the MCCS students allow us to connect the lived experience with the practice of art making. It prepares the youth and the colloquium student mentors to be learners, teachers and community participants in problem solving. Practice is an essential component of critical human development and social change because it allows us to explore others and situations through different lenses. “School is a place where youth are told that they can pass or fail but New Urban Arts provides a space in which the most valuable learning might emerge from failure” (Hocking, 52). If educators truly care about students’ development and self-determination, they should encourage us to work in teams and to do practical projects. In contrast to traditional school this colloquium course allows us to learn in real-life situations and by doing important things for real. I look forward to an educational system where the majority of the curriculum is done through practical projects.
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