Rosalie Roozendaal Krzesni

In Nordhorn, Germany (a small town near the border of Germany and Netherlands) an event was held to name streets in remembrance of each of the Jewish families who lived there before the war. One of the streets was named for my Oma (grandmother) and her family and I had the opportunity to write something to be read at the event and printed in the local paper. Because this piece of my history is so fundamental to my book, I thought I would share it here.

My name is David Krzesni and I am Rosalie Roozendaal Krzesni's grandson. I am a teacher in Washington state, USA. I am writing on behalf of myself and my family to thank you for this gesture of remembrance and healing. I hope that we never forget the atrocities of our past so that we remain vigilant and stand together to fight against human rights violations across the globe.

Just as the Righteous Gentiles aided my family and so many others, I commit my life to helping those who suffer injustice today. I commit my life to fulfilling the promise that never again will such an atrocity be committed. I make this commitment in honor of my grandmother, Rosalie Roozendaal Krzesni.

But I also hope that my grandmother is not remembered only for living through such a horrible time in history. I remember her as a strong and independent woman who always had a little extra love for me. I remember her accent and the smell of her perfume. I remember her getting out my dad's old toys for my brothers and I to play with when we visited her home. I remember when she and I stained our hands black trying to fix her typewriter. Most of all I remember her as my Oma.

I am eager to learn more about my grandmother's life in Nordhorn before the war, but I can tell you that after the war, she lived a long and good life and raised a family in San Francisco, California.

I would like to end my letter with a message from my grandmother. Although she has passed away, I recently watched an interview that she gave for a holocaust remembrance project. In the end of the interview she was asked if there was anything else that she would like to share. She said, "Have faith and that is all that I can tell you." I believe that would be the message that she would want to pass along to those in attendance of your event.

Thank you and I hope that someday I will have grandchildren who will visit Nordhorn and remember the very special woman I called Oma.

Sincerely,
David Krzesni

Pedagogy for Restoration

I initially planned to create this website as a landing page for my master's-thesis-turned-book which I hope to find a slightly wider audience for than my wonderful thesis committee. I planned to make the slightly revised thesis available as an ebook and share it with some friends, peers, and maybe even potential employers (I am desperately seeking employment, please hire me!). However, I have decided to take a brief pause to continue revising my thesis to a point where it can rightly be called a book and to see whether there could be any interest from an academic press in publishing it. I've been informed that posting it online would likely rule out any potential for publishing.

I'm not actually sure if I've really come up with something that could matter or if my thesis committee is just wonderfully supportive, encouraging and kind. The manuscript is layered between my own narrative and from the start, I thought of it as my time and space to follow my own interests and to work out my thoughts. I always thought the only outcome of the manuscript that I really cared about would be its role in guiding my own action. However, if what I've written could be of any utility to anyone else then I want to share it.

My idea was that I could sort of crowd source the editing and review process by making the book available online and continually revising it as folks offered their feedback. However, if it is picked up by an academic press the book would have the benefit of editing and peer review as well as printing, marketing, and distribution. Ultimately, academic publishing would likely result in a 'better' book, but a book that could likely not be distributed for free. That's the conflict. I want all of my work to be free and open, but I also want it to matter. Are my expectations of publishers too high? Should I just put it online and see what happens? 

Regardless, I decided to make this website be more than a landing page to promote and share my book. I hope to continue to engage with ideas surrounding education, justice, and the environment through this blog. I hope this becomes a space for discussion and collaboration on what I conceptualize as a social and ecological restoration project.

From theory to praxis

In a just couple weeks I will officially hold the title 'Master of Education,' but this is not a title that I have rightly earned. Sure, I have met the expectations of an institution of 'higher' education and I have worked hard on my coursework and thesis. However, I can't help wondering whether the sorts of masters of education that my university trains are the masters of Audre Lorde's famous essay titled, The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House. If we are not becoming the masters, we are undeniably being trained to use the master's tools.

The title, itself ('Master of Education') reflects an unjust hierarchy, as if those who have access to 'higher' education are more uniquely qualified to 'teach' than anyone else. If you believe, as I do, in the profound role of educators as shapers of society, it is extremely dangerous to institutionalize the idea that 'educator' is a title that can only be earned in a university. In actuality, we are all educators and we are all learners. 

Oral traditions far predate academic institutions and few of our greatest cultural teachers are also institutionally recognized as teachers, professors, or educators. We must also recognize that many of the folks who make our lives possible, including many of those who do the important work of growing, harvesting, distributing and preparing our food, are underpaid, mistreated, and underappreciated. These folks are just as much educators as anyone else and, in fact, most of us need to be learning important lessons from them as our food systems are in crisis. But few look to the folks most connected with our food systems as educators. Few look at these folks at all. 

This is not to suggest that we entirely dismiss the modernist mode of production and distribution of knowledge in universities. Certainly, we need to look at how that knowledge is produced and who has access, but this system has produced a lot of important knowledge and trained many of our leaders and innovators as well as millions of people who we depend on every day (e.g., medical professionals). 

As Paulo Freire said, we must learn to read the word and the world. We read both through our own unique life experience and worldview. Thus, we each have a unique and beautiful perspective to share and we are all creators and distributors of knowledge. Our universities should simply support the work of education that we are all already doing. Again, we are all educators and we are all learners.

So, to me the title, 'Master of Education,' is not an accomplishment, it is a challenge to live up to my own ideal of an educator. I aspire to be a collaborator in education and to see everyone I interact with as a fellow collaborator in education. 

Finally, I don't want to dismiss my education or the journey that it has taken me on. In my time in graduate school, I feel that I have finally found a sense of direction and purpose. Despite that direction and purpose not being entirely aligned with the university, my college education was an important part of the process. I do believe that I have developed many useful skills that will help me collaborate as a co-teacher and co-learner and to share those skills with others. I look forward to starting a new chapter and finding my own way to practice restorative and socially just education for people and planet.