Michael Naylor

...being immersed in a community that centers its mission on cultural equity education, engaging implicit biases, and attempting to counter the evolution of imbalanced power and privilege hierarchies. Also, having the opportunity to imagine a globally, racially, and culturally diverse learning community. This is especially exciting as education innovation is evolving to embrace diverse cultural assets and intelligences.

...that their experiences, diverse intelligences, beliefs, and values will be honored. They can expect their experiences will help inform the topics and projects we engage in the class. Finally, that the diversity of their intelligences and insights will be encouraged, linked to sound research, and allowed to prosper in a variety of forms of creative expression.

...to consider what happiness and well-being mean to you.  Put self-awareness about your passions, personal well-being, and cultural assets and values, in the front of your decision-making about careers.  Understand that human history as a single world community is only now in the ‘thesis’ of its evolution, and we can imagine equity and justice, inclusivity and diversity, in ways no generation before has had access.  In short, if you are creative, think independently, are willing to make mistakes, free yourselves from the bonds of racist, gender, religious, disciplinary, or cultural division and boundaries—truly the world will be open to you… and your capacities will lead humanity out of the doldrums of a long legacy of division and conflict.  You will also find happiness engendered by the fact that your life has value far beyond the scope of degrees,  jobs, or salaries.

...plotting new possibilities for world-informed equity education.  When possible, I travel the world and take breaks at our family home in the Seychelles Island  “Creole” culture.  And, occasionally, I brush off my ‘music’ composition chops—to write something just because.