Thread by @Wordslinger_C

So. Today the young one did their CBC assessment called "authentic task" which was "cleaning the market". I'm not sure what the criteria for "authentic" as "market" was, but we all went through the required motions: improvising cleaning materials e.g. dust pans, brooms, aprons..

...dust masks, wheelbarrows etc. We had to purchase gloves and gumboots.
{Please don't jump onto this with remonstrations about how we middle class parents are weak and compliant. If you've found a way to resist CBC that doesn't involve taking your child to GCSE or ACE, talk to

me and share your strategy. If you have no child in CBC sit this one out. Yes, we complied because we feel we have no choice. For now}.

Anyway, the thing I want to talk about is how the people living in the market locales seem not to have been consulted about a possible

"invasion" by kids coming for a cleaning mission.
The task, if you think critically about it, is invasive and elitist. It subsumes a place is dirty and in need of outside intervention to "clean" it without any context.
For instance, why are markets dirty?

What is the context of "dirty"? The reality is, the county council abdicated duty long ago. It is chaos galore especially in public markets. Ignoring all these contexts and descending on a market may appear noble, but what does it do overall?

My young one tells me that after cleaning a section, one of the wakaaji of the area came, dumped fresh uchafu right there, and told the kids "sisi ndio tunaishi hapa, tokeni muende!"

Showing offence that a bunch of snotty kids and their teachers had invaded and insulted them

This needs unpacking.

CBC here put kids on an NGO mission. Mark, no kids have been tasked to clean the school itself. It is externalising "help" as a mission to an othered space. We need to question this and the sociocultural implications.
At its heart, CBC is pushing a very

problematic agenda. It is an anti-politics agenda.
This agenda is couched in the language of improvisation of tools and materials, and "authenticity". But ultimately, it is for show.
The markets being "cleaned" were dirty again by day's end, I'm sure. So what's the point?

What are we teaching here? If it is to keep the environment clean in a city where we have no clear garbage disposal system, what are we doing here? Wouldn't it have been more interesting to create compost pits and recycle systems within schools, as long-term projects perhaps?

Kids will sweep markets this season. Good.
But if on the way home they pass by those markets and see them dirty, what are they learning?
And what are we saying to the adults who live and work in these "dirty" spaces?
These are questions we must deal with.