Reading, ‘Riting, ‘Rithmetic, and Relationships
I read an article a few months ago, written in 2010, that predicted the state of public education if it remained on its current trajectory. The article suggested that an inverse relationship exists between the scholars’ grade level and their authentic engagement in school. Kids are happiest and most engaged at the elementary level, and […]
Bringing Black History to a Town Near You
“Why do some white people think they’re better than Black people?” This was the opening question asked by a five-year-old in the audience who had gathered to hear from Dr. Khalid el-Hakim, founder of the Black History 101 Mobile Museum. For more than a decade, the mobile museum has traveled across the country to over […]
Deconstructing Racism in Schools by Taking Action
I am a mother, stepmother, wife, educator, researcher, author, school board member, and so much more. However, my professional life and personal life cross paths in my identity as a white mother of a socially perceived Black son. Why “socially perceived”? He is biracial but is viewed by the world as a Black boy/man purely […]
Racism Is Not a Mental Illness
In recent weeks, I planned to write a blog about problems of practice that affect instructional coaching and support in schools. However, due to the recent mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, and the resulting news coverage, I decided to write about something even more pressing. The mass shooting took the lives of 10 people, […]
Fellow White Person, What Are You Prepared to Do?
The atrocity that occurred in Buffalo this past weekend is the latest horrific installment in this country’s war on Black people, a war that has been raging for centuries. Little good comes from describing the violence or declaring our shock here: those have been expressed in countless speeches, podcasts, exposés, poems, and more. For […]
Stop.Killing.Us.
For too long, Black people have been murdered because the color of their skin is offensive to someone with a weapon and the mindset to use it. No person in this nation — which is quick to celebrate her ideal that all people are created equal and have fundamental rights of liberty, free speech, freedom […]
It’s Black History Month. Sigh.
February is here, so the Black History Month ornaments are everywhere. Company statements on websites affirming their commitment to celebrating Black history. The Black History Month assignments where students have to select an inspiring Black person from “the list” and do “the report,” the best of which get read at “the program.” The endless name-checking […]
Still Living in “The Other America”
Seeking to write something poignant about him as we celebrate the King holiday always pales in comparison to Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King’s own eloquent words and clear-eyed analysis of the state of racial injustice in America. And though his words were written over fifty years ago, the fact that they are still relevant — […]
Critical Race Theory Isn’t the Problem
Critical race theory (CRT), which has been around for decades, has become a catch-all for ideas, movements, curricula, teaching styles, and ideological stances, most of which are misaligned to the theory itself. Many of the things dumped into the CRT bucket don’t fit with its definition — a theoretical construct of the systemic nature of […]
Critical Race Theory: The Argument to Have and How to Have It
Recently, I joined a client’s (CT3) internal meeting to discuss Critical Race Theory (CRT). I was doing really well. Right until I started talking. First, some background on this group as context for why I wanted to be in this particular session. CT3 is an active anti-racist organization focused on transforming education, the team walks towards […]
