Chances are you've already seen this... it does have nearly 2.5 MILLION views and counting since its posting yesterday! (May 25, 2016).
It is the commencement speech of Donovan Livingston, newly graduated from Harvard Graduate School of Education with his Master's in Education (Ed.M.).
It was powerful, I watched the five minute speech six times in a row. There is just so much to it- it's like he wrote a dissertation and a manifesto and somehow managed to tuck it all into a 5 minute spoken word poem! Talent, to say the least!
But the message is so powerful, and I hope you will notice all the lines that speak to the fact that Resilience Trumps ACEs... and the hints that historical trauma, including the traumas inflicted by ongoing systems of structural oppression, can either cause further harm, or be disrupted.
Because as Donovan says:
"As educators, rather than raising your voices
Over the rustling of our chains,
Take them off. Un-cuff us.
Unencumbered by the lumbering weight
Of poverty and privilege,
Policy and ignorance".
You can see the full transcript here: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/16/05/lift
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