A long time ago, Orphan Girl’s mother died and her father remarried a cruel woman with a jealous daughter who is Orphan Girl’s age. Despite her stepmother’s torments, Orphan Girl grew to be a kind and gentle young lady who won the heart of a handsome man. The stepsister vied for the man, but he loved and eventually married Orphan Girl. The couple soon had a baby boy, but the jealous stepsister never stopped meddling in their love. Indignant, the couple killed the stepsister and became cursed. One day, as Orphan Girl’s family traveled to the farm, a wall fell from the sky and separated Orphan Girl from her husband, who carried their infant son on his back. All day long, the couple chipped at the thick wall to open a hole large enough for Orphan Girl to nurse her son. But overnight, the hole would close again, and the couple must repeat their labor the next day in order to feed their child and see each other. This went on for days and the baby grew weak. Realizing their hopeless condition, Orphan Girl spoke to her baby boy through the hole in the wall, “This is the end for us, my son. But I will see you again in the next life, when I shall be the flower, and my breasts shall flow with milk. You will come back to nurse as the beloved hummingbird.”
In another time and place, Corn Woman toiled in the garden, while Reed Woman swam in the lakes and rivers. Jealous of Reed Woman’s seemingly leisurely life, Corn Woman denounced Reed Woman, “I work all day to feed people, and all you do is play. This world does not need you.” Offended, Reed Woman left the human world for the bottom of the earth, bringing the rain with her. Without rain, the earth began to die and the people starved. Hummingbird was sent with tobacco and pollen to coax Reed Woman back to the land of humans. Reed Woman eventually returned and brought back the rain that nourished the vegetation and fed the people.
As a gardener, I wait for rain. At dusk during each growing season in my garden, I am gifted with the fleeting sight of the hummingbird as it flits from flower to flower, seeking nectar. We are all individuals who are not separate from each other. When we lose connection with the earth–our first mother–community, family, culture, and identity, we lose ourselves. The hummingbird calls us home to our mother, to kith and kin, to community, for within each other is where we find ourselves. As long as the hummingbird lives, there is hope for peace, harmony, and understanding.
I grew up as a throw-away child, for despite my mom’s love and devotion, in a patriarchal culture, a child without a father is an orphan. The education system has orphaned many students in its focus on individualism at the exclusion of the collective, responding to the dominant home and linguistic culture of one group at the exclusion of others. I believe education is still the great equalizer, because through education, I gained confidence and a sense of place and belonging. Through education, I realized my potential, found myself, and am no longer an orphan. For this reason, education must be accessible to all students. Education must call all of us home to identity and belonging, to the individual within a collective, to progress and the preservation of Earth Mother, to the possession of all of our children. Culturally responsive teaching is the hummingbird that can do this.
I have been practicing culturally responsive teaching for the last 25 years as a high school English teacher and university teaching specialist. As Culturally Responsive Instruction Coordinator in a large public school district, I have spearheaded implementation of culturally responsive teaching throughout the district. As a diaspora person and woman of color, I believe that education still offers our students their greatest chance to make of themselves what they wish. At the same time, I recognize that it plays a part in perpetuating and reproducing inequality. We need to develop school cultures that share core values of diversity, equity, and inclusivity of our students' cultures in order to provide access to the education they need to improve their lives, move up in the world, and realize their full potential. This is the mission of Hummingbird Education.