This post is made possible with support from the American Academy of Pediatrics through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All opinions are my own.

One of the things I’m most grateful for right now, here in 2020, the year that defies any other descriptor, is my friend Kemia. She’s a medical doctor. And a community health advocate. And a farmer. And a mother. And a wife. Kemia is a lot of things and it was her who helped me understand what ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) were, why I was hearing it so much in education, and how this information can be used to help prevent ACEs. It's not just for education or educators, either. This is for all of us, whether we have children in the house or not.

After learning that, I stopped asking students or parents or even teachers about the ACE score of a student. It’s one measure and people are super complex and complicated and, wow, if nothing else in 2020 we certainly have been getting that lesson on repeat. 

Many of us have had the chronic, unrelenting trauma of a pandemic and then the pandemic of racism and harm in this country has been layered on top of that. Either one of those is enough, because, if we’re being honest: we’re hurting. If you already have childhood trauma in your life or have knowledge of your own ACEs number, these twin pandemics certainly didn’t help. This kind of toxic stress can be mitigated -- positive childhood experiences is a part of this plan and every parent I know is looking for ways to prevent undue stress.

The reason I mention Dr. Kemia is because of the mantra she taught me when using a trauma-informed approach or thinking about the adverse childhood experiences people carry around with them: listen, protect, and connect. I heard that in my head when we shut down our state and went into lockdown. Listen to people, Kelly. Protect them if you can. Connect with people. I heard it again when the uprisings and protests across the country were swelling with loud voices who have been actively silenced for far too long. Listen to them, what are they saying they need? Protect them. Connect with them. I felt it in my bones when we heard that COVID was going to shut us down again (this week!) since the numbers across the country are rising, we don’t have any ICU beds, and we’re short on PPE for medical personnel. Whether it’s family, friends, or a stranger on the internet showing up with a lot of pain: listen, protect, connect. 

In fact, research has shown that safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments can prevent ACEs. Every person should have three people or organizations they can depend on as part of their support system. Knowing who these people are before stressful situations arise is an important piece in preventing ACEs.

If the approaching holiday season has you worried, then it’s probably a good idea to have some sort of plan in place. So, along with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control, I want to offer us a way to stay connected. It’s not for a gift guide or my favorite socks this year, either. This is inexpensive. I promise.

During the remainder of 2020 (which is, what, 3 more weeks?) offer to Be The Three. Think about the people, co-workers, children, community members in your life and give them the gift of being one of the 3 people who can be part of their support system. Think of three people you can commit to this with or come up with three people you will check in with. Find your three. Stay connected with them. Tell them you are part of their three.

Listen to them. Protect them. Connect with them. Learn more about ACEs.

How will you Be the Three this holiday season and help build safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and environments?

There’s nothing about requirements for self care but when I think about most of the resolutions
people tend to make, they’re all about health.

 
I want to lose 30 pounds.
I want to gain muscle.
I want to eat a healthy diet.

Those aren’t just generalized; I’ve made such promises to myself in the past. Namely, in 2019
and 2018 and…well. You get the idea.

This year I’ve decided to expand my own idea of health.

I want to get regular massages to care for my body in a gentle way.
I want to deepen my practice of yoga.
I want to take better care of my teeth.

What’s that, you say? Teeth?

Yes, dental health is health and since I tend to complain that my health care doesn’t include
vision or dental then I had better figure out another way to make this a reality.

I didn’t have to figure out too much because Smile Brilliant reached out to see if I would be
interested in a toothbrush. I was in need of one anyway since I missed my 6-month checkup at
the dentist because I am traveling so darn much.

When I shared this with my husband and it came in the mail, he got on board with it because it
came with multiple heads for multiple users.

So, how do I like it?

Well, here’s my honest review. I wasn’t paid to write this and simply got the
toothbrush as compensation. This is coming from someone who has never used an electric toothbrush. I’m that cheap gal who takes the free one from my dentist and didn’t I just say that
I MISSED MY LAST CHECK UP?

First, I had to get used to the vibrations. They tickle when you first start using one and so I set it
on the lowest setting. There is a “whitening” setting that I still haven’t tried because I’m
skeptical and I actually really like the “gentle” setting.

Second, I had to stop moving my hand from side-to-side while brushing. Since I find it hard to sit
still anyway I’ve incorporated yoga (YES, YOGA) into my morning routine. I’m a total badass at
asanas. But, we’ll save that for a future post. I got some advice on brushing modes that the
design is to use for 2 minutes and pause between each quadrant of my mouth. THIS WORKS.
I’m also much better at getting the back of my teeth because I let it sit there and vibrate so,
honest to goodness, my teeth are feeling much cleaner. Kind of like the way they feel when I go
to the dentist for my regular cleanings (SHUT UP, I KNOW I NEED TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT).

Finally, The Cuban is really pumped about this because he gets to use it as well but he’s
definitely made me leave it at home when I travel. I’m not sure I want to travel with it anyway
but what I realized is that when I’m on the road I actually miss it.

More than I miss my own bed.

That’s saying something.

In all, I’d truly recommend this even if you haven’t used one before. Try the sensitive mode
first. Smile Brilliant’s toothbrush stays on a charger base in the bathroom so it’s never out of
battery unless you forget to put it back on the base. I’ve had to get used to rinsing it off well,
too, and I got to get rid of that disgusting petri dish of a cup that I used to keep my old
toothbrushes in.

Do you want to try it at 20% off? Sure. Just click this link and use kellywickham20. Let me know how the tickling is.

electric toothbrush reviews

Surprisingly, lots of other people joined in and it turned into a learning environment where people asked for clarification, ideologies were explained, folks dropped links to definitions and stories where their word was used, and all kinds of personal growth that comes from the fluidity of language coupled with dominant socialized identities. I offered up “settler colonialism” as an example of something I hadn’t been taught explicitly in school nor did it come from anything I’d learned as a classroom teacher. It simply became a word I’d begun to see once I expanded who I was following on Twitter:

Native Americans and Indigenous peoples.

Sometime in 2017 I began to wonder what it was that I had to learn and unlearn and my feed has been more rich and affirming because of that small change. Once I followed people like Dr. Debbie Reese, Dr. Adrienne Keene, Kaitlin Curtice and a man who goes by Big Indian Gyasi (aka Breakdances with Wolves, a fabulous name), the recommended ‘people to follow’ began to change.

One of my other learnings in the last 5 years has been around the phrase “macro affirmations”. It’s hard to find much about it online and it’s the kind of granular terminology that makes its way into the anti-racism work I do currently. But there’s not a lot written on it. If I’m wrong and academics use it, then that’s another story and probably a condemnation of the Academy as gatekeepers.

Bias Pie Chart from Bill Hathaway for Yale Child Study Center

In September of 2016 the Yale Child Study Center came out with a report on the emphasis of bias in pre-school teachers who are looking actively for disruptive behavior in Black children (mostly boys). The study, and visibility of the lead researcher Dr. Walter Gilliam, made its way into the mainstream in a way that studies like this rarely do. The implications confirmed that Black children are hardly seen as innocent or developmentally appropriate. As a former teacher and middle and high school administrator, nothing about this study seemed new. We have a plethora of studies on bias and exclusion that pull the thread from pre-K through higher education. It’s common to hear about the over 80% of teachers who are white within the system of education.

Yet, it was what the study didn’t show that piqued my interest. The question that haunted me was what doesn’t this study show?

The conclusion I came to was that it didn’t show macro affirmations.

Following a natural conclusion of the results that pre-school teachers tended to more closely observe (and thus, “catch”) the behavior of Black children which points to the rest of the K12 systems doing the same, I wondered about what that does to the white children in schools. Black students, as well as other students of color, have reported incredible amounts of micro aggressions within school and other parts of society. So, I wondered, what is on the other end of that spectrum?

Macro affirmations.

How do white children, starting from pre-school, get an uneven amount of affirmations in the school setting? They’re told they belong, that every story centers them from the preschool bookshelf to the posters displayed on the walls to the songs they sing to learn. White children see themselves in history books as the victors. They never wonder the race of characters in stories since curriculum choices favor them and relegate the stories of the “other” in small units or months of celebration. Presence, as they understand it, is theirs. Constant affirming of their belonging and being and ways of living are simply…normal. The norms of what they see and how they experience educational settings give them a barrage of messages:

you belong

you are welcome here

everything about you is normal

this is all for you

you can see yourself everywhere

When educators talk about bias we mostly come at it from the perspective of a bias against. Often, we fail to discuss that we have a bias for a group. Even as a biracial Black woman, I have recognized that my socialization has been to have a bias for white people as those messages have also affected me. [Thanks, Project Implicit!] It’s not only jarring to see my own results, it’s devastating to consider how much this informs my own biases.

The macro affirmations that white children get throughout their educational careers is astounding. I want the study that tells me what that does to them.

Or is that ‘study’ already living out before our eyes?

Do I really need a study to tell me that white children are hurting from these macro affirmations when they find themselves in a world that doesn’t center them? Is it possible that a formal study would tell us that the macro affirmations for white children are leading them to high rates of suicide and violence? Would a study explain why the domestic terrorists we see in the news, a news that centers them, refuses to even name them as such?

Some would say this is debatable (as “whiteness” is fluid thus the data set keeps changing) yet the over 70% of gun violence exacted by white boys and men in schools, churches, concerts, mosques, temples, movie theaters seems to point back to that pre-school study of who we’re not watching in the classroom.

If teachers overwhelmingly indict Black children’s developmentally appropriate behavior starting in preschool, what’s happening to the white children who rarely, if ever, get reprimanded for the same thing? I wonder how that socializes them to see some children get in trouble for things they’re doing. I am curious about how the macro affirming messages get deep into their bones and guide their interactions with people who don’t look like them and what it is they make of those subtle stereotypes that turn into ingrained beliefs about themselves.

I wonder what it is we’re missing in schools when we macro affirm white children to the point of not seeing their behavior as errant.

If the Yale study taught me anything, it’s that there are crucial questions we aren’t asking and threads we aren’t pulling from research that literally kills us.

originally published on Medium

Usually, I depend on local organizers to bring the right people into the space. This means a lot of phone calls, emails, and trust: trust that people will organize well. There is, by the way, such a thing as organizing badly. It's possible to bring the wrong people into this work. Not everyone is ready for it. Some people want to be in the room simply to poke holes in theories, ideologies, and personal experiences. My advice to organizers is this: never knock on a closed door. Find the people who are ready.

Once there, I do an extended introduction of myself and what brought me to this work. It hinges on my own racial identity with a Black father from New Orleans and a white mother from a tiny town in South Dakota. That's when I tell the story of a Certain Looking White Woman. 

The first time it happened, I was 4 years old.

I got to choose an activity with daddy and it was just going to be us. My older sister wouldn't be coming and my mom was home, pregnant with my younger sister. I wanted to get ice cream and I had one more request. It's the kind of request only a 4 year old would give and that was to be hoisted up to be able to ride atop my dad's shoulders. 

We walked together the couple of blocks, through the park, and got in line at the ice cream shop. We weren't there very long when a white woman approached us. A more accurate word would be accosted. She accosted us. The way she walked up to us I assumed daddy knew her. He did not. Almost immediately, she was yelling. 

Kindergarten picture wouldn't be complete without the afro my mother was INTENT on picking out. 

I didn't grow up in a family of yellers. Naturally, she scared me. I didn't identify, until years later, that this is what started my panic attacks. Her face was red and she was pointing at him and then at me. Since I was on his shoulders it seemed like her finger was directly in my face. 

WHERE DID YOU STEAL THAT BABY FROM? she screamed. 

It didn't occur to me that I didn't belong to my father. I never considered that his dark skin against my light skin and green eyes would cause anyone to assume I'd been...kidnapped. Nothing about her accusation made sense but this was the 1970s in Chicago and, well, one just doesn't get into verbal altercations while being accused of kidnapping by hysterical white women. I'd argue this truth in 2019 as well.

I know what a Certain Looking White Woman looks like.

I can always tell. I've made it my life's work to identify them and then, for my own safety, to eschew them.

For more than 20 years I have avoided a Certain Looking White Woman. If she joined a committee I wanted to join while teaching and I saw too many of them, I would leave. When my children were in school and I became involved as a parent on the local PTO and I saw too many Certain Looking White Women, I backed out. There were a lot of instances where I saw her. She is everywhere.

She's entitled, privileged, and thinks she's doing me a favor. Most importantly, she believes she has every right to accost me, deny me, and question my humanity.

At age 8, a Certain Looking White Woman asked me if I felt "safe" when my father was out of earshot. In my teens and out to dinner with daddy, another one asked me if I needed her to call for help when my father left to use the restroom. They approach in equal measures of benevolence and terror and the look? Well, it's unmistakeable. I know when she's coming now. I brace myself and wait for the inevitable conversation that pretends to hinge on my 'safety'. 

The ways in which this has de-legitimized and belittled me are too much. I have avoided a Certain Looking White Woman for so long that it took me until my late 30s to identify it. It's shaped me so clearly in ways that are embarrassing to admit. My comfort has been to be around more Black men, women, and children for obvious reasons. They identify me quickly, even strangers. People who give me the head nod on the street or the Black woman who drops a "sis" or "girl" to me when I've passed her in a public restaurant while I'm fixing my hair. 

It has socialized me to occupy multicultural spaces with people and very quickly identify myself as Black. Sometimes within the first few minutes of meeting someone. I always find a way.

I share this part of my identity work because there are far too many white women who assume they're safe for me. Many are shocked when I identify them as the source of my fear and anxiety. Often, they've never considered the danger they pose to me. Some will ask, once I've told this part of my story, "Do I look like a Certain Looking White Woman? Is it me?" I don't answer directly. Instead, I respond to their question with another question:

Do you think your white femininity makes you a safe person for every person of color in this country? 

And, then, if I'm lucky and I've done my job in a space dedicated to dismantling the social and political construct of racism while getting participants to see they've all been co-opted into this ideology, they'll answer for themselves in a way that leads them to do their own socialization and racial identity work. 

I'll keep telling that story.

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This blog post is part of the #31DaysIBPOC Blog Challenge, a month-long movement to feature the voices of Indigenous and teachers of color as writers and scholars. Please CLICK HERE to read yesterday’s blog post by Hema Khodai titled #IAmBecoming (and be sure to check out the link at the end of each post to catch up on the rest of the blog circle).

You can read all of the blog posts this month here.

This post is sponsored by the Center for Parent and Teen Communication. All opinions and blessed memories are my own.

My daughter could sit for hours in her highchairs to color if I just provided enough paper and crayons. She would smile and wave to strangers in the grocery store thus making a 15-minute trip turn into an hour of socializing with people to whom she gave a bit of sunshine. If she was hurt or needed a snuggle, I was often surprised at how much longer she stayed in my lap. Everything about her babyhood was tender and full of joy for me.

NOW

As a teen, she stayed in her room for hours at a time just to read books, including the ones she stole from my dresser when she thought I didn’t know. She remained friendly as a teen, often helping other teens or asking me for advice when her friends appeared to be stuck. That let me know how much she actually listened to me. When she’s in the mood, she’ll text me to ask if I want to join her for a classic movie marathon and, even if we don’t talk, it’s just enough to be near her.

The stories from Dr. Ginsburg here reminded me of how much care we need to be reminded to take with our teens:

If you’re at that point with raising teenagers where you need a boost, check out this piece from Dr. Ken Ginsburg from the Center for Parent and Teen Communication.  I was reminded of how necessary it was to recall those lovely days of discovery of my children when tested all the limits of their teen years. (Be encouraged! I survived and so can you!)  Need a resource guide? I’ve got you covered. The Center for Parent and Teen Communication is a new, valuable resource for every parent navigating the teens with their children. Here’s a bit of the kind of advice you can find from Dr. Ginsburg, Remember the Best in Your Child and See It In Your Teen.

If you know a parent struggling with a teen, why not pass this encouragement along to them? They could probably use it.

Do you have some favorite baby or childhood memories of your children? How has that developed into the amazing teenager you’re raising now?  

My friend Elisa Camahort Page, along with Jamia Wilson and Carolyn Gerin have written Road Map for Revolutionaries: Resistance, Activism, and Advocacy for All. It's a handbook for effective activism, advocacy, and social justice for people of all ages and backgrounds. Here's more about it:

 "Are you ready to take action and make your voice heard, but don’t know how to go about it? This hands-on, hit-the-ground-running guide delivers lessons on practical tactics for navigating and protecting one’s personal democracy in a gridlocked, heavily surveilled, and politically volatile country. If you want to start making a difference but don’t know what to do next, Road Map for Revolutionaries provides the resources needed to help you feel safer, more empowered, invested in, and intrinsic to the American experiment. The book addresses timely topics such as staying safe at protests, supporting marginalized communities, online privacy, and how to keep up the fight for the long term, breaking down key issues and outlining action steps for local, state, and federal levels of government." 

Did that help? Or do you need a book blurb from Gloria Steinem? OK. HERE YOU GO:

“Road Map for Revolutionaries answers all the questions you were afraid to ask, plus some you never thought of. It’s portable, requires no batteries or electricity, and was created by three smart women. I recommend it!”—Gloria Steinem, activist and writer

I've even been granted a pdf version of where she interviews me which you can access here. 

This Friday and Saturday Elisa and I will be on her book tour in Chicago. On Friday night we'll be on the North side for the release party and then on Saturday come join us at 57th Street Books in Hyde Park. I won't lie: I'm super excited about 57th Street Books because that's where I grew up and young, elementary school Kelly would never believe she's going to be on a book tour at a place she's grown up with and they're calling me an interlocutor which is pretty damn cool. 

LOOK, MA. I'M AN INTERLOCUTOR. 

Congrats to Elisa and Jamia and Carolyn! I'm really proud to have even been a small part of this book so you can imagine how they feel about seeing it come to fruition. 

You can preorder their book here or visit your local bookstores for your copy. Check out their website for more options to purchase. 

Chicago, come through. I expect to at least see my sisters and family because they HAVE to come. But y'all are invited, too!

It was always Mr. Baldwin because of what I experienced in my student teaching when I suggested to my cooperating teacher that I wanted to use Go Tell it On The Mountain and she said, "Ok. That's a good text, but you'll have to do some scaffolding to get there." Not only was she right, but it ended up being a disastrous lesson because I had no idea just how MUCH scaffolding was needed. Right in the middle of the unit I broke down in tears and asked if I could start over. Dr. Wiseman, my co-op teacher, was masterful in how she handled this. 

"You can always start over. You can always apologize when a lesson doesn't go as planned. But, how will you do it differently this time?" 

She was a smart one, that Nell Wiseman. It's been over 25 years and I still think of her words. They actually pushed me to read more Baldwin, try much harder at making connections in the classroom, and eventually I found my way to this. 

Originally delivered in 1963 from being published in The Saturday Review, Baldwin's talk seemed more like a sermon to me. There's one line, however, that means more now than ever before when he's talking about Negro children. They wouldn't dream of calling a policeman. I wish every teacher would read this. I wish every teacher would go into their schools with the knowledge he drops here about that very system being hostile towards them. I wish we understood, on a deep level, how dangerous our schools are for the children it didn't set itself up for and how resentful American public schools were and are about teaching Black children. Even Latinx, Indigenous, Muslim, immigrant children. They walk through the doors expecting school to be the great experience their parents tell them it should be. 

It should be. But, it isn't. And his line about how they wouldn't dream of calling a policeman is loud to me. It's shouting. It's in ALL CAPS, waving a banner demanding "look at me". I'm thinking clearly on this today, the anniversary of his birth in 1924, and hoping this becomes a tradition for some new teachers and possibly some veteran ones. Happy birthday, Mr. Baldwin. 

*************

A Talk to Teachers by James Baldwin

My mother spent the better part of my early years admonishing me with this saying: Kelly, you can either be bossy or be the boss. You choose. She meant to tell me that I spent too much time telling other people what to do and there was wisdom in her words. What she also taught me was that I had better do things differently if I ever planned to lead.

Leadership is such a loaded word in education and you can list 5 leaders who all do it well but have very different approaches and qualities they impart to those they lead. When I became the Language Arts Department Chair at the tender age of 25 I knew I wanted to change one huge thing: the content of our curriculum.

All those dusty books in the dreaded, damp book room proved to me we hadn’t updated in years. The same stories I read as a child were available on those shelves and, harmful as it is, too many teachers want to re-create their own reading from childhood without critically thinking about the needs of their students.

A full 83% of American teachers are white. They have, for decades, upheld the white institutions in which they work even when their classrooms no longer look like the ones they inhabited in their youth. I cannot stress enough how dangerous this is in the year 2018. We need a big change in what we teach. I work, daily, at de-colonizing my mind. I have years to undo with all the Eurocentric history and the (omg, so much repetition) of American History from my own classes. I can name several concentration camps because my own teachers taught the Holocaust with incredible depth. Imagine my surprise, then, when I learned of King Leopold II long after high school.

Like a lot of people who find themselves incredulous of the missed history our schools didn’t teach us, I exclaimed, “HOW DID I NOT KNOW OF THIS MONSTER?” How did my teachers, year after year, fail to mention this king of the Belgians who killed 10 million people in the Congo?

TEN. MILLION. PEOPLE.

Luckily, in college, I got my hands on a copy of James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me.

Then, it all changed.

Nothing was as it seemed. All my historical education felt like propaganda and I felt like I had a lifetime of history to catch up on. I could name the kings and queens of European nations but not a single African one. I had no idea about the true story of Matoaka, only the sanitized, faux-love story version of a woman my teachers told me who was called Pocahontas. What I didn’t know could…well, it could fill every library in the entire world.

We have to do things differently this fall, dear teachers. I don’t mean to preach to the small choir of incredibly astute and brilliant educators whom I follow through social media so this is for those who have never once considered the words of Lerone Bennett, Jr:

An educator in a system of oppression is either a revolutionary or an oppressor.

With that as a base, here are resources for any teacher this summer who is wringing their hands at what to do as they watch this nation fall to pieces in ways many of us have warned about for quite some time. I’m glad you’re here, but you need to get to work.

1. First, go sign up for all the social media you can get from Zinn Education Project because they are an amazing resource. You’ll get daily Today in History material but you’ll also get teaching materials, the ability to search by time period or theme, and you can also donate to them. Don’t forget to donate.

2. Zinn’s What Happened to the Civil Rights Movement After 1965? Don’t Ask Your Textbook is a good place to start. In that, Adam Sanchez writes: “Most U.S. History textbooks teach a narrative that the Civil Rights Movement began with the Supreme Court Brown v. Boarddecision in 1954 and abruptly ended in 1965 with the passage of federal legislation. Not only does this narrative tell students that politicians and judges are more important than activists and organizers, it reinforces the myth that structural racism is a relic of the past and the United States is on an unstoppable path of progress.”

3. Next stop: go get some of the goodness of Teaching Tolerance. Follow them on Twitter. Maybe you, dear teacher, have been worried about diversity, equity, and justice. Maybe those are buzzwords to you. That’s unfortunate, but you can start correcting that course right now. You’re in luck. Teaching Tolerance is devoted to this work and has done the heavy lifting for you to be the best teacher you can be. You need lesson plans? I THOUGHT YOU’D NEVER ASK. Here you go.  

4. Jennifer Gonzalez writes at Cult of Pedagogy. (see how I’m sneaking in some Educationese here? I speak your language.) Look here. Jennifer has done the work for you with this Collection of Resources for Teaching Social Justice. Send this link to your team of teachers. Are you a parent or concerned citizen? GREAT. Drop this in an email and follow up after a week with the department chair of your favorite discipline. They need the follow up. Teachers have a lot on their plates, so, yes, I’m adding this to it but let me give you permission to take off some of that old, musty curriculum, ok?

5. A note (side story?) about all the responsibility that teachers already have: I had a teacher in my building once who cultivated her unit on a part of European history. She loved that unit. I mean she loved it. Every year she added something new, taking the unit into another full week because this happened to be her favorite part of history. She took way too long to teach this unit because it was comfortable for her. RESIST THAT URGE. We already know our history in schools is top heavy on whiteness. 

6. How do you know if you’re materials are heavy on whiteness? Do some inventory. It’s easy. Glance over your units and figure out what percentage of your teaching is in ensuring that all your students know the history of white people. Is it over 50%? 75%? That’s a problem. What does your classroom look like? Investigate your demographics. You know what? Even if you teach in a majority white school DO THIS ANYWAY. 

7. So, where do you work, teachers? I mean, what is the institution which you’ve chosen as your profession? Do you know the history of it? Do you happen to be up on the history of your personal district or the town or city in which you live? We’re complicit in so much when we ignore how our systems came to be. The History of Institutional Racism in U.S. Public Schools is a really good PLC activity for you to start right now. Understanding the SCOTUS cases is imperative here so take a deep dive into them. 

8. I have another book study for you and this is relatively new: Teaching for Black Lives edited by Dyan Watson, Jesse Hagopian, and Wayne Au from Rethinking Schools is the one you need. Rethinking Schools is a non-profit magazine and book publisher dedicated to sustaining & strengthening public education through social justice teaching and educational activism. WHAT A MOUTHFUL. I KNOW. You can donate here. You can buy the book here. 

9. Join the EduColor movement and forge relationships with teaches across the globe so you can be supported as you do this work. Read For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood by Dr. Christopher Emdin. Join us in the work at Being Black at School, a non-profit where we advocate for Black students in schools, critically look at policy, and share equity reports & tips for parents with Black children. 

If you know me then you know I created BBAS after a long career in public and private education and that this is the most important cause to me. We’re all united in addressing the complexities of being a Black student in the American education system. You can donate here. 

10. Finally, you have to ask the Good Questions to make school systems be accountable to their stakeholders (that’s you, American citizen!). Here are a few you can put in your back pocket:

What are you doing to be accountable to students of color?

Do you have an Equity Plan for the district or school and how do you know it’s working?

What’s the history of the discipline plans you use in our schools and how do you know it’s working?

Is there a Diversity Council headed up by a personal of color in this district and how can I support them?

Tell me about how choices are made for the curriculum taught in our district. Are the members diverse? Do you allow parents to join?

Trust me when I say that educators need to prepare for a radical change in how we operate during this upcoming school year. We can’t maintain status quo in 2018-19. Our children are hurting, violence has increased towards Latinx and Muslim and Black student in the last year and this is at our schools. This is where the work is so whether you’re a parent or teacher who hasn’t yet been engaged this is where we need your voices. This is where we need you to do this work.

It’s already too late.

this was crossposted over at Medium 

This is a sponsored post but the story and opinions are all mine. This post is sponsored by Reward Volunteers for National Volunteer Month.

Two things happened in the last few years that made me consider my own community efforts and what, if anything, I could be doing more of for my neighbors. First, I learned the origins of a house that was directly across from the school I was working at that had some amazing history attached to it. While it’s not on any historic registry, I found out that a Black woman named Eva Carroll Monroe founded the Lincoln Colored Home in 1898 to set up an orphanage for Black children since all the other orphanages in town were solely for white children. Eva’s work as a social worker was highlighted as she realized that Black children were left to the streets or taken to juvenile jails. The current owner of the house, Lee Hubbard, took me on a tour of the dilapidated home expressing how much he would love to see it restored. At the time, it didn’t even have a Wikipedia page, but my husband, Russell, worked on that.

The second thing was a chance meeting with a friend of mine named Brooke who worked at the Family Service Center. She knew some of my own interest in the Lincoln Colored Home, but she also knew of my own background as a birth mom as well as a teen mom. Over lunch one day, Brooke asked me if I was interested in being a community volunteer on the Board of Directors. I joined the Executive Director and the president of the Board for lunch at FSC and, upon my tour, I noticed a large picture of people who were instrumental in getting FSC started with their mission. It surprised me that so many of the photographs were of Black community members in Springfield and that the photos were so obviously old. The biggest surprise came when I realized that the photo at the top of one of the founders was none other than Eva Carroll Monroe.

That did it for me. I was hooked.

Not only was this something that was historically significant for me as a Black woman, but it fit into my ideology of caring for marginalized children in society. Their mission of supporting strong families for strong communities drew me in, and I have given my time to volunteering for them for almost three years now. Organizations do their Board of Directors very differently and there are others I’ve considered but they are sometimes prohibitive in what they require as far as massive donations to sit on them.

The Family Service Center is a meaningful volunteer opportunity for me because of what it allows me to give back in terms of my time and energy. We are deeply invested in continuing the mission of the Center so our monthly meetings consist of fundraising, business partnerships, staff development and many other things. One of my favorite parts is being able to celebrate with the families they serve after an adoption is complete or when a family has been reunited. At my first board meeting I learned that the adoption judge in town completes each legal proceeding by telling the families the same thing: “I hereby order your family to now go get some ice cream to celebrate this.”

REWARD VOLUNTEERS KEEPS TRACK OF YOUR VOLUNTEER HOURS

Giving back, in this way, doesn’t cost me anything other than my time for those meetings or attending the events we plan whether it’s a Trivia Night or our end-of-the-year fundraiser each May when we invite the community to celebrate with us, our families, and the staff. I use Reward Volunteers to log my hours and keep a record of the good I’m helping to put back into the world. What’s great about that is how encouraged I feel when I see other people doing similar things for their communities. There are prizes available but, honestly, I rarely sign up for those simply because it’s more fun for me to see various opportunities that are out there. 

I urge my friends and everyone I know to become engaged locally in whatever ways they choose. It’s poignant that the Family Service Center is something to which I had multiple ties and that’s exactly how I tell people to do this. What do you already care about? What has affected you personally that you’re now in a place to do something about? It won’t necessarily start with a story of an abandoned house lost to history or an inspiring Black woman who made change in tangible ways for this town. That one belongs to me.

What belongs to you?

Find out more about Reward Volunteers by clicking this link.

As women everywhere have been reflecting on their own experiences with sexual harassment and assault, Evie shared the intereview she did with me and showed that school administrators should have a deep understanding of the culture and climate of their buildings and the teachers and staff therein as a place where not only children are educated but that those doing the educating are safe. 

From her piece: 

"Early in Kelly Wickham Hurst’s teaching career, some of her colleagues warned her about an older male coworker. He came in early and sometimes cornered women, telling inappropriate jokes that at times led to uncomfortable physical contact he brushed off as accidental, they said.

The Springfield, Ill., middle school had a wave of young, newly hired female teachers that year, and they believed its administration didn’t take their concerns about the man seriously, Hurst said.

“I paid attention to it but I thought he’d never do this to me,” said Hurst, who retired after 23 years and founded an advocacy group called Being Black at School."

You can read the piece in its entirety here. You must be subscribed to EdWeek.