An Indigenous-focused university workshop on the topic of time management is teaching students to resist colonial productivity culture and its tools: time and calendars.
The University of Toronto course is a set of three workshops titled the “Sweetgrass Series,” which use Indigenous knowledge as a framework for academic success,” according to the course outline.
One student taking the course told GWU! that the workshop was “Basically communism, but with an Indigenous façade.”
The snitching student went on to reveal that the ‘woke’ course “tried to reinvent the wheel, literally,” referring to a four section colour coded “priority matrix” wheel diagram. The wheel is supposed to help prioritize tasks that are most to least important.
TIME FOR A POW WOW
“The teacher told us that a lot of our guilt is because of the colonial concept of time. She insisted that this emphasizes outcomes and productivity with no consideration to our whole emotional well-being.”
The student says the class was told that calendars and schedules are at the root of the problem and need to be ‘resisted’ as they are ‘tools of colonization’.
He goes on to tell GWU! that while making time for yourself and balancing work/life responsibilities is ideal,he lives in the real world.
“I mean, if I was late at my part-time job too many times or didn’t show up for my shift because I didn’t check my schedule … cause calendars are racist, I’d be fired and not be able to pay for all these stupid courses I need to graduate.”
“I went along with it because I didn’t want to be offensive, but what a load of shit,” summarizes the student.
The “Sweetgrass Series” was offered to students from February 7th to the 21st. How they would know that without the colonial concept of time is anyone’s guess.
