“I WANT TO HELP MY PEOPLE BE FREE”: EDUCATION AS A TOOL FOR LIBERATION AT THE OAKLAND COMMUNITY SCHOOL
Though Oakland Community School did not teach Panther ideology, the school’s focus on critical thinking, experiential learning, respect for students, and care for the whole child served a liberatory intent.
Critical thinking was embedded in the culture of the school. Rodney Gillead, a former teacher, recounts that when someone (student or teacher) shared a statement, they would often be asked: “Did you investigate?” Which worked as a way of asking the speaker to back up their argument with some verifiable information. Gillead also notes that many teachers at OCS were influenced by “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” a book by Paulo Freire that argues that culturally relevant, critical thinking based education is the key to liberation.
Critical thinking was embedded in the curriculum at all levels. A rough draft of the critical thinking program includes concepts such as common thinking flaws and philosophical inquiry in the curriculum. One newspaper article from the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service describes the American history curriculum as revealing a more accurate and honest portrayal of history that presents students with information and encourages them to draw their own conclusions.
At Oakland Community School, students were given many opportunities to learn through real world experiences, embodying the school’s motto “The World is a Child’s Classroom.” Field trips included visits to San Quentin prison, the Black Engineers Conference, and a field trip to the Afro-American Cultural and Historical Society in San Francisco. Oakland Community School students also regularly engaged with history and current events through several plays that they created and performed. The world also came to the Oakland Community School. Maya Angelou, Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, and James Baldwin (among others) made very memorable visits to the school.
The school was part of the larger community. Parents and community members often volunteered at the school, it was closely connected to the Community Learning Center, some students participated in Black Panther protests and events, and they advocated for other children in the community.
OCS students had an important say in how the school was run. The Youth Committee weighed in on decisions regarding curriculum and activities, helped fundraise for the school, and ran a radio station. The Justice Board, which was made up of representatives from each class, was in charge of meting out disciplinary actions for students who broke significant rules. Rodney Gillead said that this lessened the hierarchal power dynamic between students and teachers, and was more effective because students held each other accountable.
The Oakland Community School sought to clear away obstacles to learning by supporting students’ physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual needs. Huggins states “It’s impossible for a child to think about Language Arts if he or she has no food at home. It’s impossible for a child to think about Mathematics if she doesn’t know whether she’ll be able to get to school in the morning because she doesn’t have a pair of shoes. If a child is seeing constant argument or struggle, it’s impossible to think about what makes flowers grow and why there are star and the sun and the moon.”
When Huggins noticed how hungry some students were because there was not enough food at home, the school began serving lunch and dinner in addition to breakfast. OCS staff knew that difficulties in a child’s home life have a major impact on how they show up at school, so Ericka Huggins (along with others) provided counseling to students and families. After lunch, everyone in the school meditated together, and “A blanket of the silence would fall over the multi-purpose room when we did that and then we would get up and go on with our day. It was so beautiful.”
While many public schools fail Black and brown low-income students, at Oakland Community School they were encouraged to be critical thinkers, learn from the real world, shape their own education, and were supported and cared for.
