If you do not understand racism (white supremacy) and how it works, everything else you understand will only confuse you. - Neely Fuller

We need something to clarify everything for us, because we get confused...but if we use the concept of Asili, we will understand that whatever it is they are doing, whatever terms they use, however they come at you, you need to be thinking about what? How is this going to facilitate their power and help them to dominate me? -Marimba Ani

Friday, June 14, 2013

Schemas & Reading | Tools For Learnderstanding

I met a third grader, who taught me the meaning of the word “schema” - basically a tool used to help you learnderstand something else.

She used the schema of phonics to help her pronounce the title of the book, “Eloquence.” Then she asked how many pages the book contained. She turned to the last page. “97 pages,” she said in a way which indicated that was way too many pages for one book.

“Would you rather have $1 or $97,” I asked.

”$97 dollars,” she quickly responded.

Each page is like money I told her using the schema of analogy. I stopped short of saying more, to give this 9-year-old time to reflect.


Reading, learning and understanding are some of the greatest gifts we have. These abilities are worth far more than money. We can use them over and over. Each time we read, learn and understand we gain more abilities for reading, learning and understanding. We also gain greater awareness of how to use other capabilities and resources.

This is the value of using the schema of reading as a tool for learnderstanding. Reading allows us to build enormous amounts of valuable knowledge that is immediately beneficial. Reading and learnderstanding never lose value because they both increase in value the more we use them.

Reading, Eating, Stream Of Consciousness. Food Fight #40