All of our kids, ready for life
Rise Up for Students is a blog advocating for racial equity and radical empathy in our schools, in Seattle and beyond
Black History Today, created by Marcus Harden in honor of Black History Month, pays tribute to the living legacy of Black history in our community and beyond, and recognizes the people like Dawn Mason who are shaping the future.
Read MoreThe Black History Today series began as a way to honor the everyday heroes in our communities who live selflessly serving others without the fanfare they deserve. Please join me in celebrating these wonderful people by commenting, sharing your stories of them and sharing in the love of those who are indeed making Black History Today!
Read MoreEden Mack has resigned from the Seattle School Board.
Mack posted her letter of resignation on Facebook today, saying she could no longer represent District IV because she could “no longer participate in the ongoing systemic dysfunction that is not serving the students and families of Seattle.”
Read MoreWe’ve had seven superintendents in Seattle Public Schools since 2000. We’ve proven to ourselves exhaustively that the next person (doesn’t matter who it is) will not be the one to save us.
We have to right this ship ourselves.
And so when I think about what that line in the sand would look like for myself and my kids — when I consider how I could throw everything I have behind this, once and for all — I have a question of my own:
Is it time to boycott Seattle Public Schools?
Read MoreBy Matt Halvorson
I’m not sure we need to retain Juneau, and I’m not sure we need to let her go. I just feel that it only makes sense to let Juneau go if we are fully committed to being this hard on every part of the System — only if we are finally we are committed to transforming everything — right now.
Read MoreThe Seattle School Board will decide soon whether or not to extend Superintendent Denise Juneau’s contract, which is set to expire next year, and the process has given rise to a storm of unexpected questions and controversy around a leader who had previously been seen as strong and under-appreciated.
Read MoreThis is such a strange time.
Such a strange time, in fact, that it’s already a cliche to even call this a strange time.
And the problem with calling it strange, I suppose, is that strange doesn’t even begin to describe 2020 — not to mention what might come next.
Read MoreA common misconception exists that tells us our school system is “broken.” The idea is that inequity in our schools — whether that’s racial inequity, gender inequity, or any other sort — can be “fixed,” and that our public schools are inherently good and well-intentioned.
Read MoreIn a time of uprising and upheaval, an education that is truly honest, culturally compentent and child-centered is itself an act of revolution. The foundation for this journey is the revolution within each of our selves. Remember, if things as violently inequitable as we know they are — in our schools, in our cities, in our world — the solution might seem radical at first. We might not fully understand it yet, and it might feel uncomfortable. It might even sound like something our schools conditioned us to fear.
Read MoreHow do we educate our kids during a pandemic? How do we educate our kids during an uprising? How do we educate our kids without conditioning them? It will require new and unfamiliar ways of thinking, living and parenting.
More Zoom calls for kids and remote learning through a historically inequitable public school system are not the answer… but what is? It is becoming more clear every day that we will have to create it ourselves.
Here are a handful of books and ideas that have influenced me and my family as we move away from traditional public schooling, committed to making sure our kids are educated without being schooled, valued without being graded, and loved without being conditioned.
Read MoreAdvocacy takes on many forms. As leaders within communities fight to have equitable representation for all children in schools, we have the power to stand behind them and demand authentic response and actions from school district leaders.
Read MoreIn case you missed it, there will be no police presence in Seattle Public Schools moving forward.
Following the lead of student activists, SPS ended the practice of having police officers — known as “school emphasis officers” — stationed in five middle schools. This announcement came days after Seattle Police used a middle school parking lot as a staging area for anti-protest response without permission
Read MoreIt’s been one of the great joys of my life to share so much time with my son doing something we both love. Deep down, I think we had both known that this Little League baseball season was already lost, but still. It was a sad moment when we finally had to feel and acknowledge it.
What better place to be than on the first baseball field liberated from the Empire?
Read MoreIf you are a parent, George Floyd named you by name. We are on a path toward abolition. Consider that it took a Civil War to end chattel slavery, and that the Montgomery Bus Boycott alone lasted 382 days.
How committed are you to this? What will you do? And what will you keep doing?
Read MoreAs we consider how and when formal education will resume after this period of quarantine, we must ask ourselves: is what we are doing liberatory? Or is it oppressive?
Read MoreWe may have experienced the Last Class in the world we once knew, but from adversity always comes opportunity. I hope we use this time to create a new world of opportunities and access for students of color and the educators that continue to support them.
Read MoreSeattle Public Schools announced that all high school students will receive an “A” in every class for the spring semester, a move that quietly eliminates — for the time being — one of the primary ways an unjust education system sorts and tracks our kids.
Read MoreIn the early weeks of online learning, a Portland middle-school teacher finds that his students’ personal growth is inspiring hope for the future and offering certainty during unsteady times. Through this necessary period of solitude, of living simply in shared sacrifice, people young and old “are learning about themselves and what is important in life.”
Read MoreWhat new world will we create for students and families in the wake of a pandemic that, for now, has only just begun? What are we learning as COVID-19 brings tumbling down the illusions and excuses that propped up the old system? How will our system of education change? How will we move forward as parents and teachers, school administrators and students?
Who will we choose to be now?
Read MoreIt’s been 10 days since my kids were last in school here in Seattle, and as the COVID-19 pandemic continues its systematic shutdown of, well, the entire system, it’s time for us parents to get creative. That’s why I’m glad to be helping my son and his buddies produce a sports-talk podcast about their own youth baseball league.
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