“Young white people with the capacity to act in solidarity with movements for justice are dangerous to white supremacy and its guardians. Those are the real stakes — not white children feeling guilty, but white children armed with truth, history and a righteous desire to work with others to change the world.”
- Christie Nold and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca, “Why the narrative that Critical Race Theory will ‘make white kids feel guilty’ is a lie”
Hello, friends!
I have some good news I want to share: I got to meet my mentor and role model, Tressie McMillan Cottom in person at a three-day retreat in Boone, North Carolina which was co-hosted by Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman. So if you ask me how my summer went, know that it was deeply shaped by this amazing experience. It was also an opportunity to spend time in community with 300 mostly Black and brown women and non-binary folks; writers, artists, scholars - So much brilliance in one place! It was a gift I gave myself and know that the effects will continue to ripple out over weeks, months and years. Game changing in all the best ways!
It feels important to lead with good news for a change because there’s always so much of the other kind. I hope the summer was kind to you and yours, that you are returning to this construction site called education somewhat refreshed, recharged, reinvigorated.
In this month’s newsletter I want to highlight the work of some white women educators who have spoken out fiercely against racism and the politics of exclusion. Their examples provide useful touchstones for those of us marshalling social justice resources in various contexts.
Christie Nold and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca published an opinion piece in the Hechinger Report detailing why the narrative that Critical Race Theory will make white kids feel guilty is a lie. Quoted above, it provides an excellent template for others preparing to argue the same case at school and library board meetings and other public forums.
Kass Minor of The Minor Collaborative issued a statement, Teachable Moments, with regards to textbook publishers changing content to align with mandates in certain states such as Texas and Florida to remove identity-affirming language and also prevent a complete teaching of American History.
Opening Up The Next Phase
As we return to our classrooms, what are our hopes and dreams for ourselves and our students? What will our students require of us? Which truths will we pursue and to whose benefit?
Big questions worth asking. To that end I’m sharing some resources which may help you process your next steps. Each one contains multitudes so, perhaps pick one and keep it moving.
Student voice should be integral to our planning and the research presented in the engagement article gives us valuable guideposts. The thinking routines website offers a massive database of strategies for all manner of structured interactions. Finally, for those of us charged with organizing any kind of professional development program, for an hour or a semester, I formulated some ideas on how to make those events count for all involved.
What students have to say about improving engagement - hint: choice, dialogue, exploration…
A mega resource for thinking routines courtesy of Project Zero
The professional development we deserve - I wrote this one myself
Here’s one social justice book I encourage you to read this year:
The Wake Up by Michelle MiJung Kim, recommended to me by Meredith Klein, CEESA DEIJ Collaborative co-facilitator and best accomplice ever!
Michelle Kim’s subtitle is key: “closing the gap between good intentions and real change.” As she lays out early in the book “Good intentions don’t make good people. Only good impacts make our contributions useful in the moment. And that’s why our intent to do good is rarely a helpful measure of progress.”
She is an Asian-American woman speaking to all of us called to right the wrongs of widespread injustice wherever we find it/them (which is essentially everywhere). What I appreciate so deeply is her focus context and positionality; on the need to hold multiple truths while acknowledging and addressing our distinct limitations in awareness. She offers us a way forward in our thoughts and actions. That path requires owning up to how much we need to learn and then following through to actually learn it! Wake up, indeed.
Of course, there’s more stuff I want to share but most of us are starting a new school year and frankly, who has the time?! BUT, I would be remiss if I didn’t direct you to this extraordinary conversation between Debbie Millman and YA superstar author, Jason Reynolds, who paid the AIS middle school a virtual visit last year.
One of my favorite quotes comes when Jason describes being haunted by all the things anyone has ever taught us:
“There are so many things and so many people in our lives that are there and not, that we can see and not see. I am always in every room and yet never in the room…The ghostliness of Black life is a very real thing.”
I felt that on many levels. As I get myself ready for the coming school year and the excitement that is elementary education, I want to think about presence and being my full self in that ongoing process. I invite all of us to consider our manifold ways of being with students and colleagues and families. Let’s prepare for the openness that students ask of us and the world. Our default pattern at this time of year tends to be thinking about what we’ll do. My request and invitation are to begin and end with who and how we plan to be our full selves. I am here for it and will wager that our students are, too.
Friends, I wish you and me and all of the wonderful human beings we get to work with the very best school year we can imagine. We all deserve that. Let’s make it happen!
Be well,
Sherri