It started as a simple idea. Teach Black children about Marcus Garvey in a way that I had never received.

So, I started with a book here and a book there. Then, drawing on my 30 years as a middle school teacher, professor, and chair of developmental education, I began writing lesson plans.

As I wrote these lesson plans, I realized they were not enough. They were repeating what many public schools do, especially during Black History Month. They present our heroes without context. Without cost. Without the opposition those heroes faced and the strategies they built to meet it. Frantz Fanon said each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it, or betray it. Most curricula skip that charge entirely. They give students a portrait and call it education.

I began writing a curriculum for a client in New York. Grade 6. But by the time I finished, I realized I needed a three-year arc to complete the developmental sequence.

And here it is. The Garvey Blueprint. A three-year ELA program founded on Garvey’s philosophy and guided by the scholarship of Paulo Freire, Rupert Lewis, Angela Duckworth, Benjamin Bloom, and Maslow.

Garvey’s foundation is what holds everything together. His philosophy aligns our thoughts and emotions with disciplined action. But what separates Garvey’s ideas from most others on alignment is his insistence that our actions must serve our communities. In this case, the Black community. Or as Bad Bunny said, “Mi gente.”

If you’d like to learn more about The Garvey Blueprint, the link below will take you to The Garvey Classroom NotebookLM, where you can query and receive answers in over 80 languages.

https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/37ac40f9-77bb-4155-8024-7e9992668b4f

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FAQs

What is The Garvey Blueprint? The Garvey Blueprint is a three-year Pan-African ELA curriculum for grades 6 through 8, founded on the philosophy of Marcus Garvey and guided by the scholarship of Paulo Freire, Rupert Lewis, Angela Duckworth, Benjamin Bloom, and Maslow.

Who created The Garvey Blueprint? Geoffrey Philp, an educator with 30 years of experience as a middle school teacher, professor, and chair of developmental education, created The Garvey Blueprint through The Garvey Classroom LLC.

What makes The Garvey Blueprint different from Black History Month lessons? The Garvey Blueprint studies historical figures in context, with costs and opposition, rather than presenting heroes as portraits without strategy. Every figure is studied as a builder whose methods can be applied today.

Why do Black students need a Pan-African curriculum? Most public schools separate African, Caribbean, and African American intellectual history. The Garvey Blueprint reconnects that tradition across 75 figures from the entire diaspora over three years.

How does The Garvey Blueprint teach Marcus Garvey’s philosophy? Garvey’s philosophy aligns thought and emotion with disciplined action in the service of the community. The curriculum weaves its three pillars into every quarter, guiding questions and assignments across all three grades.

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