Count Me In - The Opposite of Marginalization

In the book Notes for the Margin by Kathy Mezei, the author explores the idea that often we need to move to a space where we are not marginalized in order to thrive. What is striking about the idea of being marginalized is its universality. This is made clear in the first two paragraphs of the preface:

“Have you ever felt like you didn’t fit in? Have you had the experience of feeling like an outsider, standing on the periphery of a group to which you would like to belong, and feeling that you don’t, or can’t? Perhaps, on closer observation, you have decided that you don’t really want to.

Have you ever watched people sharing a glance or a joke – part of some intimate and secret exchange – and realized that you just didn’t get it? Have you ever realized that you know something that other people don’t know, or you don’t know something that everyone else seems to understand, and either way, it sets you apart? Then you understand, at a very basic level, the concept of marginality.”

Immediately, one understands that marginalization happens to us all during the course of our lives. At school, most of us can remember being picked last for a team, feeling not good enough at a subject (math, art, science, PE, etc.), or even getting extra attention because you are ‘gifted’ or have special needs. As adults, we can be marginalized for our food choices, faith, income, or medical needs to name just a few. The key to the idea of marginalization is that we all have experiences where we feel that we just don’t belong.

At Passages, one of the central ideas is that it is a place where you can be free to be yourself and not be marginalized. The hashtag #LearnYourWay is true to this idea of recognizing that everyone’s learning is different and this helps to avoid being marginalized.

There is no way to eliminate the margin entirely; there will always be people on the outside looking in. And sometimes individuals are happy to be excluded when what is on offer is of no interest to them or they prefer to be on their own. What we can do, however, is recognize instances where people who want to belong are excluded and do what we can to limit or rectify those instances. Passages is a place that does its best to limit marginalization.