Entry # 14: Looking at kids
through a new set of lenses
As I sat down in front of the computer this morning, I realized I didn't
have my reading glasses...grr! For about the last year or so, I've needed
to wear magnifiers to read text comfortably. My arms just haven't been long
enough to compensate for the effects of aging.
Wearing the glasses on a chain around my neck helps me to remember to use
them, but I still find myself trying to read without them, trying to avoid
their necessity. My daughter teases me about my behavior. She has worn glasses
most of her life, their use is reflexive for her, but I'm just not there
yet.
I woke up this morning thinking about a different set of lenses -- about
viewing all of my work as an educator through the lenses of equity, diversity
and democracy. These issues are uppermost in my mind for lots of reasons,
but they're just not reflexive yet.
In the past week, my work in three different groupings has brought these
issues front and center.
Curriculum as window & mirror
First, on Tuesday, I attended an administrative SEED group meeting. SEED
stands for Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity.
At the session we did most of the usual "first meeting" sort of
things. We talked about who we were and our purpose as a group. We talked
about ground rules or norms, and we talked about scheduling. There was a
difference though, because our facilitators consistently focused on the
inclusion of multiple voices and perspectives, in their words, and in their
actions.
It was an exciting beginning, and I was pleased to participate in a group
where the talk, and the walk, were in sync. I hate going to workshops where
the leaders say one thing and do another. It always makes me question the
presenters' true beliefs... If you're supposed to be in favor of hands-on,
but you conduct an exclusively chalk and talk session, what's your true
MO?
In any case, at the SEED meeting the facilitators were consistent and they
conducted a text-based discussion of "Curriculum as Window & Mirror"
by Emily Style. The article was used to prompt our reflections about our
own experiences as students. We were asked to write about a time when we
felt mirrored or reflected in the curriculum of our schools.
It was pretty heavy to look around the room and see a group of school folks
struggling to think of a time when the curriculum reflected their identities
as individuals. Most people ended up writing and talking about the ways
we weren't reflected in what we learned -- the ways we were left
out.
The question then became one of why we learned to succeed in school. What
else was going on in our families, or in our heads, to make us buy in to
this thing called school?
Why do some succeed and others fail?
I have thought about this question a lot lately, not in terms of myself,
but in terms of our students. In particular, I've been thinking about the
kids who don't buy in, the kids who are increasingly left behind.
Lots of students are opting out, but the largest numbers of disengaged students
in our schools are children of color. We are physically losing our children
in high school, where they are dropping out in alarming numbers.
When does the dropping out begin? Does it start in middle school or does
it start even earlier? Are they dropping out on us because we've abandoned
them pretty much from the start? When did school become a sentence to be
served, and what can we do to change it?
The next time these issues were raised was on Friday when I attended a SILO
meeting. In my new position as a coordinator, I attend these citywide meetings
periodically. They're meetings where professional development is conducted
for all the folks responsible for carrying the District's message, the learning,
back into our schools.
These meeting are huge -- hundreds of us attend. Our focus on Friday was
on "Teaching Black Males." We read a chapter from a book called
African
American Males in School and Society: Practices and Policies for Effective
Education . We also heard a presentation by Dr. Greg E.Carr, a faculty
member of the Howard Univiersity Dept. of Afro-American Studies, and the
School District of Philadelphia's African-American Male Committee.
In his remarks, Dr. Carr talked about everything from the current election
crisis, to racial profiling, to the suspension of young African- American
males for their supposedly "outlandish" hairstyles in a West Phila.
Catholic school. (Their hair was in cornrows which was labeled "outlandish.")
He successfully jump-started the conversation about the ways we are losing
our kids by pointing out that we ask them to check their identities at the
door. He talked about the subtle -- and not so subtle -- ways, we squeeze
our kids out by asking them to be someone else's definition of students
and learners.
In our small groups we talked about what resonated for us in Dr. Carr's
presentation. We also began to talk about the ideas which we found to be
provocative.
Dr. Carr had asked us to begin the conversation, a conversation that is
long overdue. He challenged us to worry less about civility among peers
and more about the disenfranchisement of our students, and it was that piece
which I found most provocative.
We keep dancing around, "making nice"
As a white teacher I know all too well the way we dance around these issues
of diversity. We "humbly" give ourselves the right to look the
other way when we see or hear our peers being disrespectful toward students
and their families. The unwritten code reasons that "after all, it's
none of our business, we're not in charge," or "we're not the
self-appointed keeper of respect."
I'm really struggling with this issue. I know I'm not the "keeper"
and I know I need to reflect on my own practice regularly. It's not a given
that I am always respectful to others who are different from me. Just like
putting on my reading glasses, being conscious about diversity, about equity
and about democracy is not reflexive. I have to decide to do it, over and
over again.
I can put my glasses on alone. I can't change my practice alone. I can't
reverse the effects of a curriculum and policies that disenfranchise our
kids alone either. How can we begin to hold these conversations, how can
we push our thinking, if we keep dancing around, making nice?
I don't think we can. I don't think we can go on holding our multicultural
festivals, celebrating Black History month and holding an occasional discussion
of an article or speaker, as if these things mean we're embracing diversity.
The stakes are too high to treat equity as an add-on. It has to become part
of every conversation, every lesson plan, every decision about policy and
procedure.
Treating these issues as topics we'll get to later, when we know each other
better, or later when we understand the problems better, means never really
getting to them.
We're cutting the very things that engage our students
I'm thinking now of all the stories I'm hearing of schools where the "extras"
are being cut so kids can get prepared for high stakes testing. The "extras"
include all the attempts to include culturally sensitive curricula and authentic
assignments in our classrooms.
Cutting the very things that engage our students, coupled with the delay
of any real conversation about their disengagement, sounds like a losing
combination to me. In fact, I think you could make a case that this combination
can be pretty clearly translated into numbers of students lost.
After our session with Dr. Carr we were asked to facilitate discussions
in our Cluster groups. I decided to ask my colleagues, "Given what
we've heard and discussed today, how will your work look differently on
Monday?"
For my part, I think I need to begin to look at each workshop, each lesson,
for deliberate structures and content that are designed to include multiple
voices and perspectives. If we're organizing a walk- through of a school
or a classroom visit, I need to ask myself how I'll know that all children
are being respected and encouraged equally. What would the evidence look
like?
What should my response be when I do or don't see equity in our schools?
How can I push my/our thinking and practice so that the majority of our
students will benefit from the changes?
If I'm selecting an article for teacher leaders' discussion, how will my
choice of article and my discussion prompts provide us with openings to
reflect on our practice toward the children who are not like us, the children
we have failed to include successfully up to now?
I'm reading a book by Ira Shor called Empowering
Education. In the book, Mr.Shor speaks of "encouraging students
to examine how their experience relates to academic knowledge, to power,
and to inequality in society." He goes on to list several values as
requisite in the development of an "empowering pedagogy." He says
they must be "participatory, problem posing, situated, multicultural,
diologic, desocializing, democratic, researching, interdisciplinary and
activist."
I'm anxious to continue reading this book. I want to see how he defines
those values or components. I'm looking for insights that will help clarify
some next steps for our schools.
Including students in the conversation
I confess, I'm nervous. I know pushing these conversations can make people
uncomfortable. I know I'll make mistakes, but I know I need the collective
context to move forward.
Thinking about equity, diversity and democracy might never become totally
reflexive for me as a caucasian individual, but if we approach it as a group,
a group that includes the diversity respresented among our students, we
should hit the mark.
I'm not saying it's the job of others to "fix" me,or that I can
"fix" anybody else, but I am saying that we all need to step up
to the plate together, and face the risk of making mistakes for the sake
of our students and our future.
I'm looking forward to my attendance and facilitation at the National School
Reform Faculty's Winter Meeting in Florida on Wednesday. The meeting will
give me an opportunity to explore these issues with other educators from
around the country. And, for the first time, we will be including student
voices in the sessions.
Adding students to the mix always helps me to stay focused. These middle
schoolers from FL will provide us with first-hand accounts of their experience
with our curriculum and methods. As the recipients of our work, their responses
are reflexive.
I hope to come away from the meeting with a renewed understanding of what
it means to place our students at the center of all our work and our study.
Connecting our kids to our curriculum in a way that grounds and enriches
our teaching and learning must become as habit forming and empowering as
the glasses I'm learning to wear around my neck.
Without the glasses my vision is blurred. Without equity, diversity and
democracy, my vision amounts to no vision at all.
[Editor's note: Deb is co-moderator of the
new MiddleWeb listserve.]
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