Blog Posts
Revisiting Mockingbird (Again)
To Kill a Mockingbird just celebrated its 64th anniversary, and has been the number one book taught in the United States for decades. As we prepare for the new school year, I wanted to bring this question to the fore again. Why teach To Kill a Mockingbird? What do you see in the book that makes it essential to your curriculum? If you’re teaching it, are you considering the book through a racial lens? Are you attentive to how students of color feel about the book? What do you say to students about the use of the N-word in the novel? How do you relate the themes to the lives of students and the world they see? If you have dropped the book from the curriculum, why? And what other books are you using that engage students well across race, gender, and other social identifiers?
Embracing AP African American Studies
Starting next fall, all high schools, public and private, can sign on to teach the official AP African American Studies course. After completing a rigorous research and design phase, involving the input from more than 300 college faculty and guided by a panel of expert teachers — and following a two-year pilot program involving more than 15,000 students and hundreds of teachers in 40 states — the AP African American Studies course will be widely available.
The Supreme Court, Race, and College Admissions
All things considered, the U.S. Supreme Court decision rejecting affirmative action based on race boils down to a victory for privilege and power and represents another blow to democratic principles and justice.
Toward an Ethic of Mutuality: The Work of bell hooks
The work of antiracism is immensely challenging everywhere in the nation today, but the efforts being in made in Berea, and elsewhere, gave hooks the hope and energy that enabled her to dedicate her life to this work — to her belief that change can come.
We Must Dismantle the “Matrix” from Within: Liberatory Practices in Counseling
While we are unlikely to disentangle ourselves completely from the legacy of white supremacy, we can still incrementally disrupt it. If we engage in hurt reduction as a regular practice, we are helping to put enough pressure on the system itself so that, in time, it will not be able to function as structured.
Black History Month, 2023
Our focus is on how, amid all the troubling political and cultural resistance and misplaced fear, we can help educators navigate their own professional and person antiracist journeys and continue to develop the skills and knowledge to serve all children well.
The Wound Is No Longer Hidden
For all of us white educators who work in schools and care about the future of this nation, it’s important that we keep Berry’s perspective in mind. It’s important that we engage in, and encourage others to engage in, greater personal reflection on the development of better community and cultural practices.
Native American Heritage Month Reflections and Resources
We encourage educators to focus their attention this month on improving their knowledge of Native American history and vibrant culture, as well as its intersection with all other subject matter.
White Men Reimagined
The work is personal, thus can be painful. It requires a strength far different from the messages of domination as virtue that most of us received growing up. But we have to persist. We have to find the courage to realize our own stakes in the work of dismantling white supremacy and patriarchy for the sake of our collective future.
Planting the Seeds of Curiosity and Self-Reflection
I have found that the best way to grow our ranks is to plant the seeds of curiosity and self-reflection by inviting dialogue with others who view the world differently.
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