Stephen Haff | Still Waters in a Storm
Good Life Project
Jonathan Fields / Acast
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 April 2020
⏱️ 90 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Stephen Haff is the founder of Still Waters in a Storm, a one-room school serving mostly Spanish-speaking immigrant children in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Previously, he taught English at a public school in Bushwick for nearly a decade, before leaving to recover from the effects of extreme psychological stress that led him to re-evaluate how he would return to serve kids as an educator and activist. In his new book, Kid Quixotes (https://amzn.to/34zxPit). Stephen shares a powerful story about the kids and an incredible 5-year project to translate and perform a modern version of Don Quixote. He earned his MFA in Theater Studies at Yale, and has made a living directing plays and writing essays for the Village Voice and other publications.
You can find Stephen Haff at: Website: http://www.stillwatersinastorm.org/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So, working as a New York City public school teacher in a pretty tough part of Brooklyn, |
| 0:12.0 | Stephen Half was moved to make a difference in a system that seemed really stacked to |
| 0:17.2 | make that almost impossible. |
| 0:19.7 | And what started as an act of love and devotion to his students led to some really profound |
| 0:26.4 | revelation, but also quite literally led to the demise of his mental health, his relationships, |
| 0:33.4 | and nearly his life. |
| 0:35.8 | Forced to step away after what he describes as a breakdown, Stephen had to completely |
| 0:40.8 | re-figure how to keep serving these kids who he loved so much, but in a very different |
| 0:48.2 | way. |
| 0:49.2 | It took a number of years to find its new form, but slowly and painstakingly still waters |
| 0:55.0 | in a storm. |
| 0:56.0 | A one-room free school serving mostly Spanish-speaking kids of immigrants in Bushwick, Brooklyn, |
| 1:03.9 | was born. |
| 1:05.0 | Their one rule, everybody listens to everybody. |
| 1:09.0 | What started as a project to reengage kids reconnect them to their voices and cultivate |
| 1:13.6 | a passion for learning and writing, it ended up growing into something that is now so |
| 1:18.7 | much bigger, so much deeper, and so much more profound. |
| 1:22.5 | He shares this beautiful story and an incredible five-year project that he has all the kids |
| 1:28.9 | working on in his new book, Kid Kihote, and in today's conversation, we dive deep into |
| 1:35.5 | this really rich and powerful journey. |
| 1:38.5 | So excited to share this conversation with you. |
| 1:40.9 | I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project. |
... |
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