Jodi Pongratz: Working For What You Believe In
- Brielle Byrne
- Jun 21, 2017
- 2 min read
With Pride month coming to a close, we talked to Jodi Pongratz, a DrEd alumni! What stuck out the most was their passion and determination to teach about LGBTQ equality. Here is a snippet of their post!
"My community seemed to burst wide open since coming out at the late age of 32. I was one of the initial hires with Out in Schools, and for four years facilitated dialogue through film with high school students. I couldn't seem to impress on my childcare director how it could be applied to elementary school contexts as well. Since some of the children were displaying homophobic language and attitudes, (still apparent today) and the
parent and administrative board were not receptive to an intervention, I created my own platform from what I had learned with Out in Schools: “BAD Filmmaking”, (Back Alley Drama). Through this initiative, I performed independent workshops exploring anti-bullying and film-making with elementary school students. Then in 2012, I was invited by a couple principles in the Vancouver School Board to perform this work over a six month period for grade 3-6 classes, Eventually, I was commissioned to create and facilitate a large scale forum on cyber-bullying and social media delivered to childcare educators in 2014 for SACCA: School Aged Childcare Association.
In addition, last year I screened “Accusations": a short film I made in response to the experience previously mentioned where homophobic language was used by elementary school students. While it's based on my own experiences as a childcare worker, I included some stories from school aged kids. The film was made with the help of some of the young actors I've worked with and the support of their parents. " "Making films and facilitating social issues has been much more successful for me than my attempts at operating an art-teaching business. I prefer to call it a social service."
Stay tuned to see more from Jodi Pongratz!
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