Join author Rukia Monique Rogers for an intimate and inspiring look at the values, practices, and relationships of the Highlander School in Atlanta, Georgia, rooted in the vision of the beloved community as espoused by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sharing abundant stories and rich photography from the school, the book is both a critique of the history and status quo of how we have confined our thinking and practices and an invitation to reflect on who you are and how you want to reimagine early childhood programs. See the big picture and small details of a program that believes in the full human potential for care, love, and justice, strengthened by deep connections with the earth and each other. We invite you into a journey of profound promise and change.
Contents
Space and Time for Growing the Beloved Community
Honoring Rituals and Traditions
Eagerness for Relationships
Playing, Learning, and Working Together
Our Diverse Community and World
Fighting for the Beloved Community
Click here to view Our Beloved Community on Redleaf Press.
“This book is filled with beautifully written stories and gorgeous images reflecting children’s eagerness for relationships and natural capacities for compassion and fairness. You will find the book not only inspiring but truly helpful in calling on and growing children’s innate understandings and deep desire for social justice and loving and protecting the natural world. The stories in this book will give you hope for humans. Savor the children’s and educator’s words and actions to propel you to take up this vitally important work in our fractured world.”
—Deb Curtis, author and early childhood educator
“We will carry what we know—what it can mean to have your country under you like a hammock, what it is to take part in the world, instead of using your people as fodder in a war to control the world’s meaning and expression. We will disrupt through witness, remembrance, and the courtship of the imagination. We will escort children past the darkest warrens of the forest. We will construct kites that stay aloft in the rain. We will champion what is beautiful.”
—Barry Lopez, essayist and nature writer