Ubuntu, Crandalls, and Hope for a Better World

1. Integrity
2. Responsibility
3. Self-Esteem
4. Sense of Humor
5. Self-Awareness
6. Focus
7. Ubuntu

These are the 7 Life Skills promoted by Hoops 4 Hope and 7 skills I work to promote as a classroom teacher of writers, thinkers, readers and doers. The skills are the epicenter of the Hoops4Hope program and are written to promote the importance of making smart choices on and off the field. In the classroom, the skills were  about making intelligent decisions in and out of school. Living with these mantras in mind benefit us all.

My cousin Mark Crandall is the champion of champions who has been building a strong sense of community since 1995 in both South Africa and Zimbabwe (it can be argued, too, that he's done a tremendous job in Amagansett, Long Island, too). His work reaches 10,000 youth a year in over 150 schools and shelters through the labor of a dedicated staff. Most recently, though, his promotion of Soccer4Hope has gained global momentum: in Africa, during the World Cup, and beginning this month in the Arctic, which includes Kugaaruk.

In Bridgeport, Connecticut, I've been working with teachers and students to promote Literacy4Life, building upon these life skills. Building community takes a lot of time. Rebuilding communities takes even longer, especially when young people in the United States endure curriculum that doesn't necessarily help them to build integrity, responsibility, self-esteem, a sense of humor, self-awareness, focus, and ubuntu.

In my own teaching and, later, with my Ph.D. at Syracuse University in literacy, I saw the importance of these 7 life skills in the lives of writers I worked with. Like the physical activity required on the playing field, students need teachers to stretch, drill, offer skill, practice, play, and reflect as an everyday routine. Learning to write, like learning to play a sport, requires individual to have a sense of belonging to something larger than themselves. Writing has the potential to empower young people, especially when they see how they count within the larger communities they inhabit.

Richard Kent, a teacher, writer, and coach, has spent the last few years researching the effect writing has for athletes. In UMaine Today (Fall, 2012), he stated, "we all have different ways to learn. Some of us do well by writing about it, some of us need to talk about it, some need to think about it, and some need a little bit of everything." Writing goes hand in hand with athletics because it is a way to reflect and build knowledge. Athletics go hand in hand with writing instruction because the best teachers are coaches, not lecturers.

As we continue to build community where we work, we need to better collaborate efforts. Perhaps promoting these seven life skills is a start.