i am who you say i am? or am I - black boys within education with yelitza smith (afroboy books)
Today I am joined by Yelitza Smith who has been a teacher for 17 years. She talks about her passion for teaching and gives her account to the experiences of black boys while she was an educator. She has turned her passion for educating and used her skills to create afroboy books. These are superhero books that show diversity within the classroom and are aiming to support black children with their literacy skills.
We talk about a lot of interesting topics within this episode such as black boys within the education system, self-fulling prophecy, superheroes, Autism and limiting beliefs.
I loved talking to Yelitza about superheroes and hearing that she has a whole universe planned. It speaks to the inner geek in me that loves all things superheroes. I think it is a great way to engage young black boys into reading. It is also authentic to who she is because she loves superheroes too. We also mention Mansa Musa and how the character of black panther was inspired by him.
Here is one of my favourite scenes from black panther.
I think it was also important for people to hear about how damaging words can be to young people. When I gave my account of what the teacher said to me about going to college. I easily could have been in college and not fulfilled my potential at school and gone onto sixform.
Here is a little video about self-fulling prophecy.
The book I was talking about which I have not read yet but is waiting to be read was Alchemy – Rory Sutherland. This book talks about ideas that didn’t make sense to be with but are now the pillar of our society. I thought it would link with the episode well because we were talking about daring to be different
