Schools at the Festival

by Kana Ohnishi, Menlo School

Discovery

Craig’s curiosity connects him to the natural world. It drove him to go to the ocean, which was his meditation coach. He saw how beautiful and intricate the kelp forest was. His recordings show facts we didn’t know about octopuses. The octopus made him love going to the ocean, which healed him from the stress he had as a documentarian.

Like Craig I became interested in an animal. It was a baby bird that had fallen from a tree when I was in first grade. It fell from a nest and we took it in, but it died two weeks later. I had never had a pet so this baby bird felt like one to me. Over the course of those two weeks I experienced lots of things that will stay with me like feeding the bird, greeting it, and playing with it.

After the baby bird I started to think more about animals. I thought about how humans have run over the world and how it affects animals. The tree was above the pavement. If the bird hadn’t fallen on the pavement, it could have survived. I discovered that caring for something weaker than you can teach empathy and resilience. Like Craig, when I see that an animal is hurt it gives me lots of compassion. In the end, we both learned from an animal.

Discovery is more than just being face to face with a bird. It’s when you get to know it, get to know yourself that you may not have known, and as you discover those things you can incorporate that into your daily life. That is something that I tried to do during the pandemic. Discovery was a big part of the quarantine. We discovered new ways to teach and to go to school and perform events. We also discovered that we shouldn’t take everything in our old lives for granted. We used to complain about going to school, but now you’re lucky if you even get to go to in-person school. Discovery is important and we need it more in our daily lives.

by Johnathan Gullick, The Nueva School

Animals Undermined

James Herriot – veterinary surgeon and writer – said, “if having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.” Craig Foster learned the same thing. His film, My Octopus Teacher, highlights the relationship between Foster and an octopus.

In the early stages of Foster’s career, when he filmed the way that the San master trackers joined the natural world, he concluded that “they were inside.” He longed to be a part of nature, like them, and his relationship with the octopus allowed him to do that. He originally started diving without recording when he didn’t want to experience filming again. He healed because the dive gave him a way to conjoin filming – something he loved – with being unfettered by the daily struggles in life. I too encountered an animal.

When I was regularly visiting the zoo for a project, there was a chimpanzee named Jamie who could respond with gestures to questions or requests such as “Show me your ouchie.” She was treated as unintelligent. Jamie and the other chimpanzees in the enclosure weren’t taught to take full advantage of their intellect, whereas chimpanzees in the wild (which I had seen in documentaries) were.

I realized that when humans feel superior to others, they try to make other beings appear less intelligent than reality. As Foster and I both learned, animals have a potential that is undermined by humans.

Curiosity and discovery would have a huge impact in a difficult time in my life mainly because it would give me a purpose. When you are doing the same thing repeatedly, exploration makes you see something new, which brings interest into your daily life. As Foster learned, his new interest can save you from exasperation with routine. He had time to experience the “pure magnificence” of the octopus.

My Octopus Teacher highlighted the benefits of spending time as a part of nature. It showed how Foster’s relationship healed him enormously. Most of all, it showed that animals are beings.

by Korei Gray, Skyline High School

LET’S GET RID OF THE OPD AT OUSD

“Black youth accounted for 73.8% of all juvenile arrests by the Oakland police department since 2006 despite making up just 29.3% of Oakland’s school-age population”(Public Counsel). The school police have been discriminating black youth for a while now. The Oakland community also have been trying to get rid of the OPD for a while. “Of the roughly 1,000 school districts in California, Oakland is one of just 23 across the state—and the only one in Alameda County—with its own school police force”(McBride Oaklandside). Homeroom is a documentary that focuses on this issue. The movie follows students from Oakland High School who are trying to get rid of the Oakland Police force in their school. This movie brings to light this crucial issue of how racist the police force is to communities of color.

In World War 2 there was a need for workers to build navy ships. In Richmond, Kaiser was building navy ships. African Americans from the south came all the way to the bay area to get these jobs. The white residents of Oakland weren’t happy because the African Americans were here.

To address white residents’ fears, Murch’s research showed, the city government connected several departments, including schools, parks and recreation, and family services, with probation and criminal justice divisions to monitor “troublemakers” and delinquent youth. In 1957, Oakland Unified established its own police force.

This quote means how black students are getting treated differently than the white students. Black students in OUSD were seen as outsiders and treated differently. OUSD created its own police force because of the black students. We shouldn’t have cops in the school because they were racially profiling the blacks.

The main student that the film focused on was Denilson Garibo. Denilson was a senior who was the student director of the Oakland Unified School board. At the start of the filming of the movie, George Floyd had been murdered by the Minnesota police. George Floyd’s death and the protests by the Black Lives Matter movement inspired the students at Oakland High School to protest the presence of Oakland Police in their school. Denilson led these student protests at his school. He felt strongly about this issue because his family is undocumented and he didn’t want to put them in jeopardy. There was a school board vote to get rid of the School Police. Most of the School Board Leaders didn’t want to get rid of the school police. One quote from the movie sticks out to me. Denilson told the school leaders “You’re white, I can understand why you think the police are necessary.” Denilson then went on to talk about why the presence of police is harmful. Both of his parents are undocumented, so the presence of police is life threatening to them because at any moment they could be detained and deported. He is trying to get people to recognize the constant fear that people like him are in from the police.

Denilson’s actions and efforts were inspiring because it showed me how hard he was working and how determined he was to make the school safer for everyone by getting rid of the police. They were able to accomplish their goal even during the pandemic. I agree with Denilson’s stance against school police because they only seem to really pick on black and brown students. Most people who are arguing against this would say that we need more police in schools to keep students safe, but I disagree. The way that police treat black and brown students is very different from how they treat white people. The police represent harassment and they act like they’re above the law. I believe their actions are racist and are life threatening to me and my people.

by Isabella Romeu, Galileo Academy of Science and Technology

My Octopus Teacher Essay

Have you ever felt lost, incomplete? We have all been there, it is in our nature to question what we are doing with our lives. Craig foster is a perfect example, for many years he thought he wanted to film movies with his brother in the desert, but he soon learns the ocean is what he truly longs for. It helped him feel more fulfilled with his life. Me on the other hand feel more complete with a whisk in my hand.

Craig’s childhood connects him to his natural world, his ability to have a life in and out of the water. To learn and befriend an octopus and introduce her to his son, and to teach his son that there is a whole other world in the ocean, and to learn about it with him. Craig has been called to the ocean ever since he was a little boy. He grew up on the “cap of storms” and every year his house would flood with ocean water, and he would enjoy it. Even after going to the desert to film with his brother he longed for the ocean, for the curiosity that it brought in with every wave. Craig felt lost without the ocean, as if he was drifting from the man he was. Craig calls the ocean “another planet”, “it’s like there is a three dimensional forest and you are flying through it”. The ocean was a sanctuary for him to escape his problems and to see things in a whole new light. He discovered there was a whole world barely anyone knows about yet he feels safe, “as if there is a 10 to 15 minute window where everything is ok”.

The pandemic was a hard time for me, moving away from the town I grew up in and where all my friends were. I felt lost so I took to baking to console me. I’ve baked the occasional brownie from a box with my family, but over the past few months I have been baking from scratch. I have learned so much from it too. You have to be precise with everything that you do, it takes time and you can’t rush into it or you will miss all of the fun and flavor. Baking also teaches you that not everyone will like what you do, some people aren’t baked goods people and you have to go out and find people that are.

Discovering new things in life is what makes it so amazing. It gives you new memories and a sense of fulfillment that you carry around with you wherever you go. Craig and I might not have the same hobbies, and we might be discovering different things, but we are still connected by curiosity and the idea that there is always more to learn.

by Lia Cano, Franklin High School

I must draw meaning from nothing; in a world where anything can cultivate inspiration that sows authenticity and ripens passion with success: I am an artist without art. I remiss my graphite sketches and smeared watercolor storyboards. I’m among scattered notepads with character studies and red ink underlined and crossed out on my premature script. I gloss over my fashion designs with mismatched scraps and short snippets of animated walk cycles. And yet, I call myself an artist but with no “definitive” artwork. I shouldn’t expect myself to have already produced an animated feature length film or my designs walking the steps of the Met Gala because in truth, when I hear stories of other people’s art-driven “hero’s journey” like Tyler Scarlet, I can’t help but to wonder about my own “call to action” that’s supposed to lead me to my great “return” or “master of two worlds”.

In any well-known story from the Odyssey to Star Wars, the hero must first become uncomfortable whether they’re told new truths or ripped away from their hometown. For a young adult who must brace the formidable transition between high school to college, I foresee that this is the start of my first arc. During these current times whether socially, politically, or economically, the world needs just lawyers and dauntless doctors; however, I do not picture myself in such noble professions. I am majoring in English in the upcoming fall. I can become a journalist uncovering unbiased truth or a court stenographer documenting specific details of revolutionary cases, but I go back to the little girl who’s only obligation was to passionately experiment. For my future career, I simply wish that the kid who is sitting in front of their screen, consuming my future animated cartoon series, listening vehemently to their favorite character, can imagine themselves containing multitudes.

I cannot recall an experience where I thought, “well, this is the one career I want for the rest of my life” because as I alluded previously, art is everything and anything and my culture represents the culmination of my passions. From the intricate designs of the sacred land on our sarongs to the transfixing movement of our hips and fingers in hula to the beautiful craft and vibrations from the ipu hula, large gourd drums, to the strength and serenity of our voices in chants and meles, Hawaiian songs, to the lacing of kukui beads for any momentous celebration; my mentors are my culture. I am my ancestors before me and my ancestors were artists.

Thus, as I listened to Tyler zealously yet honestly illustrate not only his work for Lucasfilms and his other endeavors, but emphasize that though his own journey may not be curated to fit the “big screens” and fine tuning his art provides needed growth rather than doubt, I realize that we are our own Chosen One: for our narratives, for our journey, and for our own success.