Odds and Ends: Mandatory acceleration, land acknowledgment, step-parenthood, and more...
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Today I have a few odds and ends, so let’s just get into it.
Read MoreA quick thought about the Seattle School Board
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This is the year, if there ever was one, to really change Seattle Public Schools. In addition to the four seats up for election this fall, two additional school board members in Seattle (Betty Patu and Zachary DeWolf) have announced their desire to resign this year and vacate their seats early.
The school board only has seven members to begin with. By the end of this year, we could essentially have a completely new school board.
Read MoreAn outdated update on the Seattle School Board science curriculum debacle
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Above all, if we don't know what impact this will have on marginalized communities in the district, then we need to find out. If we're serious about wanting to close the opportunity gap, then the first and most important question we need to ask about every single decision concerning our students and our schools is what impact it will have on Black students. What impact will this have on low-income families in Seattle? What impact will this have on Seattle Public Schools’ indigenous students? What impact will this have on the kids we talk about wanting to uplift?
If our outcomes are ever going to change, then our decision-making processes have to change. Otherwise, we will continue to end up in the same places again and again and again.
Read MoreThe Seattle School Board will vote this week on a new K-5 science curriculum, and a few key players seem on a mission to get Houghton Mifflin Harcourt the contract. What is really going on here?
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Doesn’t it seem like something weird is afoot in Seattle Public Schools?
Read MoreA Parable on Whiteness (from a Four-Year-Old)
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One evening, sitting on the floor in our hotel room in Oakland, Zeke started drumming on a plastic cup.
“This song is about a town where everything is white,” he told me after a few minutes. “White, white, white. Everything used to be rainbow colored, but something happened to turn it all white. Now they can’t tell what house is theirs. Everything looks the same.”
Then he sang for a while as he drummed.
Read MoreSystemic oppression demands a systemic exodus
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Our traditional public schools are systemically inequitable — in Seattle, in Washington State, and everywhere else in the United States. Put another way, our schools are consistently producing inequitable outcomes based on race and family income, and it’s a form of systemic oppression.
We know this, most of us. But for most of us, that’s all we do. We know it. It’s mostly an intellectual idea.
So instead of idle knowledge, let’s consider for a moment what that really means — systemic oppression — and what it means for us as human beings.
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Seattle Public Schools unveiled a new strategic plan based on targeted universalism! Will it be enough?
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The opportunity gap, as we all know, is a byproduct of systemic oppression playing out in our schools. The way to upend systemic oppression is to find a way to turn the system on its head. Targeted universalism applies that table-flipping mentality in a constructive way. I’m so surprised and pleased to hear this idea mentioned as our schools’ strategic north star.
But…
Read MoreJesse Hagopian is being displaced at Garfield High School
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Tracy Castro-Gill, the ethnic studies program manager for Seattle Public Schools, posted on Facebook today that “Garfield administration has chosen to displace Jesse Hagopian.”
“Jesse teaches less than half time at Garfield because of his work with Rethinking Schools,” Castro-Gill wrote. “He authored the course description and curriculum for the only board approved ethnic studies course. His leadership in the BLM@SCHOOL movement has strengthened the fight for ethnic studies. And now the district is not willing to pay the 0.4 FTE to continue his work at Garfield.”
Read MoreOur kids bear the burden of our patience
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Time keeps passing. The system keeps on revealing more and more of its flaws, shortcomings and downright bad intentions. We continue to search for solutions, but our kids are carrying the burden of our inability to change.
Read MoreThe time is now. What would you do if you knew you were the hero of the story?
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Biff Tannen is the President of the United States. Dolores Umbridge is overseeing our nation’s schools. What would you do if you knew you were the hero of the story?
Read MoreRise Up for Students stands with the Unist’ot’en and the Wet’suwet’en
/Rise Up For Students stands with Wet'suwet'en, the Unist'ot'en, and all those fighting and suffering from colonial injustice.
Remember: to know and to do nothing is to be complicit.
Visit the Unist’ot’en Camp Supporter Toolkit. Stand up as yourself and take action.
KUOW: Seattle Indian Health Board could shutter weekend clinic, cut treatment beds in half if shutdown continues→
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It's important to note that our most marginalized communities are first and most deeply affected by our government's acts of white supremacy.
It's not enough, though, just to take note of this. Noticing is only the beginning? What can we do? What will you do?
It is usually too late if we only wait to react. We must begin actively dismantling the structures and systems that create and enable this kind of violent inequity in order to prevent it happening over and over again in the future. This begins by examining your own role and participation.
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Sounds and Songs from the Indigenous Peoples March in Washington DC→
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I was lucky enough to participate in the first Indigenous Peoples March in Washington DC on Friday. Listen to the sounds that surrounded me and join me in considering your place in all of this.
Read MoreA call to live out your principles more fully than ever
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Don’t forget that it’s up to us, all of it. All of this. If we don’t upend the current state of affairs, who will? If we don’t fight oppression, who will?
We know what we know. I hope that if nothing else, this might inspire you to think hard. If you saw a movie with yourself as the main character, knowing what you know, what you would expect that character to do? What would that character find him or herself doing in the name of living out your principles?
Read MoreMy alma mater hired 15 people recently, and all 15 were white. What gives?
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I got the latest issue of The Augustana Magazine in my mailbox this week. It’s the alumni magazine from my alma mater. I flipped through it today, paused and read about the Augustana baseball team’s national title, and was about to recycle it until the page listing new faculty hires and promotions caught my eye.
Take a look at it. What do you notice? What do all of these folks seem to have in common?
Read MoreChecking out a new children's book: 'Muddy: The Story of Blues Legend Muddy Waters'
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Our house is bursting at the seams in all kinds of ways these days, and we are particularly lucky to be overflowing with books of all kinds — especially for kids. We have shelves filled with kids books written by people of color, and it’s fun to sift through them. (I’d love to keep sharing them with you, incidentally.)
We also have some that are like this one: books written about people of one race by people of another, or about one gender by another, as is the case with “Rejected Princesses: Tales of History’s Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics,” written by Jason Porath. The question of why he, a self-described "random white guy from Kentucky,” was writing a book about women, is probably best answered by his dedication page, which reads, “
I suppose you want a mix, in the end, but it remains important to be conscious of this dynamic, and that we are intentional about hearing authentic storytellers.
What do you think?
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