Leaning In 4/18
This Nate Bowling article was one of the first articles I came across this semester. It was extremely uncomfortable reading it, uncomfortable with the idea that someone--a teacher no less--would tell me that America doesn't care what happens to black students. OF COURSE I CARE! I felt immediately defensive but kept reading. One of the speakers at a conference I recently attended spoke about striving for equity and social justice in the classroom and started the conversation by saying that we would be discussing things that made us uncomfortable, and she wanted us to lean into that discomfort.
Bowling makes his feelings very clear: segregation is alive and well in the U.S. and the white community is totally okay with it. Once more, my immediate internal response was to feel defensive. I reminded myself of something I often tell my own kids, that just because it isn't an issue in YOUR life doesn't mean it isn't the most important issue in someone else's. Lean in.
Bowling notes that "much of white and wealthy America is perfectly happy with segregated schools and inequity in funding." Oof. That hurts. It pains me not only to think that, but that he is right in his thinking. The next painful truth was that much of the problem is simply a lack of political will. When he said that once people decide they are okay with the segregation, the fight is over. He compared it to the Sandy Hook massacre--when faced with the atrocity without any change in gun control, America essentially decided that it was okay with killing children. If we as a nation can accept the massacre of children without any action to prevent it again, how will we every change the state of education and the inequity within if the country is overwhelmingly okay with it? Ugh. Lean in.
Bowling offers his own solution--teachers:
"Teacher quality matters. Too many in the profession are quick to awfulize students in poverty to rationalize poor results. Better teaching inspires students and gets better results. Better teaching engages students and keeps them in classrooms, rather than the streets. Better teaching is the one thing we never really talk about. Better teaching is the only mechanism we have left."
Message received, Mr. Bowling.
_______
Jennifer Gonzalez, the author of one of my favorite blogs, The Cult of Pedagogy (there's a podcast too), gives what I think is excellent advice to teachers. Her most popular article is about what she calls the "Marigold Effect," about finding your people in the school, the ones that will inspire and encourage you--I whole-heartedly recommend that article.
An early article that I found on her site has stayed with me this semester, especially as I am learning how to recognize my students as experts, as individuals with stories and cultures to be honored, and as vital contributors to the classroom conversation--not little vessels to regurgitate the info I pour into them. Gonzalez hits this concept on the head with her article "Lessons in Personhood," where she talks about the way we must live the values we want to see in our students. She said,
"yes, deliver your curriculum...provide rich, hands-on, authentic learning experiences. Offer rigorous academic challenges. Raise the bar. Coach and guide. Nurture. Push. Advise.
But aslo be: To truly lead is to pay attention to who we are in the downtime, in the margins. To help them become the best people they are capable o becoming, we must first be those people."
Her list is a good one, with ten ways to be a leader like that. She gives examples of leading with enthusiasm, with relationships, with imperfection. She ends her article with this perfect quote:
"To stand before children--share physical space with them day after day--is a rare privilege. In every minute we spend together, they will learn something. Whatever it is we put before them, they will learn from it."
Bowling makes his feelings very clear: segregation is alive and well in the U.S. and the white community is totally okay with it. Once more, my immediate internal response was to feel defensive. I reminded myself of something I often tell my own kids, that just because it isn't an issue in YOUR life doesn't mean it isn't the most important issue in someone else's. Lean in.
Bowling notes that "much of white and wealthy America is perfectly happy with segregated schools and inequity in funding." Oof. That hurts. It pains me not only to think that, but that he is right in his thinking. The next painful truth was that much of the problem is simply a lack of political will. When he said that once people decide they are okay with the segregation, the fight is over. He compared it to the Sandy Hook massacre--when faced with the atrocity without any change in gun control, America essentially decided that it was okay with killing children. If we as a nation can accept the massacre of children without any action to prevent it again, how will we every change the state of education and the inequity within if the country is overwhelmingly okay with it? Ugh. Lean in.
Bowling offers his own solution--teachers:
"Teacher quality matters. Too many in the profession are quick to awfulize students in poverty to rationalize poor results. Better teaching inspires students and gets better results. Better teaching engages students and keeps them in classrooms, rather than the streets. Better teaching is the one thing we never really talk about. Better teaching is the only mechanism we have left."
Message received, Mr. Bowling.
_______
Jennifer Gonzalez, the author of one of my favorite blogs, The Cult of Pedagogy (there's a podcast too), gives what I think is excellent advice to teachers. Her most popular article is about what she calls the "Marigold Effect," about finding your people in the school, the ones that will inspire and encourage you--I whole-heartedly recommend that article.
An early article that I found on her site has stayed with me this semester, especially as I am learning how to recognize my students as experts, as individuals with stories and cultures to be honored, and as vital contributors to the classroom conversation--not little vessels to regurgitate the info I pour into them. Gonzalez hits this concept on the head with her article "Lessons in Personhood," where she talks about the way we must live the values we want to see in our students. She said,
"yes, deliver your curriculum...provide rich, hands-on, authentic learning experiences. Offer rigorous academic challenges. Raise the bar. Coach and guide. Nurture. Push. Advise.
But aslo be: To truly lead is to pay attention to who we are in the downtime, in the margins. To help them become the best people they are capable o becoming, we must first be those people."
Her list is a good one, with ten ways to be a leader like that. She gives examples of leading with enthusiasm, with relationships, with imperfection. She ends her article with this perfect quote:
"To stand before children--share physical space with them day after day--is a rare privilege. In every minute we spend together, they will learn something. Whatever it is we put before them, they will learn from it."
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