Happy Mother’s Day: A Tribute to Black Moms Who Use Education as Their North...
Whenever you see a low-income, single Black mother, I challenge you not to judge. I challenge you to see greatness in her and her children. I challenge you to see my mother and me. My mother was born...
View ArticleSometimes You Have to Face Politics in the Classroom, Even in Kindergarten
In the current political climate, emotions in America are high. Regardless of a community’s prevailing politics, teachers see these emotions play out in classrooms. This is true with children as young...
View ArticleI Always Hated Charter Schools. Until I Put My Kids on the Waitlist.
I have never been much of a proponent of charter schools. I am the proud product of traditional public education from kindergarten through 12th grade and I always felt that public charter schools take...
View ArticleThese Stories About Bad Principals Will Piss You Off and Then Hopefully Make...
I’ve had bad principals. In fact, it’s pretty hard to find a teacher who hasn’t. The job of a principal is almost aggressively impossible—to act as an instructional leader, head of discipline, event...
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This Is Why the Oppressed Can’t Get No Sleep
While many were celebrating the Fourth of July with hamburgers, hotdogs, fireworks and good ole fashioned apple pie, I was rereading Frederick Douglass’ speech of July 5, 1852, “What to the Slave Is...
View ArticleHere’s What a Win in My Classroom Looks Like and It’s Not What You Think
Malia had failed my ninth-grade English class for three consecutive quarters. She hadn’t come close to passing once. It wasn’t for lack of ability; her writing was far from polished, but it had voice....
View ArticleEvery Single Educator Has to Stand Up and Recognize Racism in This Country
How many men and women of color have to die for White educators of goodwill to help eradicate bias in our schools and nation? Like many, I have been horrified to learn of the deaths of a growing list...
View ArticleWhite Teachers, Here’s How to Handle Being Called Racist
If you haven’t read this piece by Kayla Renee Parker yet, you really should. Ms. Parker, a Black woman and college student, challenged her professor, a White woman who still thinks multiple choice...
View ArticleSure, You Hate Trump, But Can You Tell Your Students That?
Is it OK to hate the president? Yes. Is it OK to hate the president from the front of the classroom? That’s harder. As teachers who dislike Trump, we’ve had the summer free to openly hate the president...
View ArticleI’m No Black Revolutionary But After Charlottesville I Want to Be
This weekend, there was a terrible and very telling incident in Charlottesville, Virginia. While emotions are high and people are scared, to me, this is a moment in which we, Americans, must make key...
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These Two Sisters Aren’t Afraid to Get Messy If It Means Better Schools for...
“Don’t mess it up.” Those words rode the bus with Quibila Divine in the late 1960s and early ’70s from North Philadelphia to the predominantly White northeast neighborhood where she would be among a...
View ArticleWhite Students Are Following Trump’s Terrible Lead When Talking About Race
Last week, President Trump gave a press conference on the events that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia. He doubled down on his original statement where he placed blame on both sides and did not...
View ArticleI Was a Racist Teacher and I Didn’t Even Know It
I was a racist teacher and I didn’t recognize it. At the time that I taught, I would have argued that I was the opposite. I was a progressive, a Democrat. I campaigned in my progressive town in Western...
View ArticleOur President Is Wrong on Race and Our Kids Need to Hear Us Say It
I need to say it. You need to say it. Teachers need to say it. School leaders need to say it. We all need to say it. Our president—who drew a moral equivalency between White supremacists and the groups...
View ArticleAll the Black Kids Are Still Sitting Together in the Cafeteria
I attended a predominantly Latino grammar school. We were all friends for the most part—the Black students, Mexican students and the few White students that went there. But whenever there was a...
View ArticleDo I Really Have to Live in an All-White Neighborhood for My Kids to Get a...
I grew up in Queens (St. Albans), New York, and attended Andrew Jackson High School in the early ’90s. My family, who migrated to New York from the island of Jamaica in the late ’70s, was unconcerned...
View ArticleDamn! NO Black Teachers Are Being Hired? This Is Crazy!!
I have a serious inquiry for school administrators: Is a teacher applicant’s race a factor when you consider hiring them? Let me be more specific: Do you think about your minority student demographics...
View ArticleWe Can Be a Nation of Dreamers and a Nation of Laws
On a hot day before the end of the school year, I sat in my classroom with Wajid, a tall and reedy senior who had immigrated to the United States five years before. At the time, he didn’t speak a word...
View ArticleA Commitment to Justice: Educator to Educator
Recently, I thought about what accountability looks like between educators. I thought about what I hope other educators will hold me accountable for and what I will commit to holding them accountable...
View ArticleSometimes You Gotta Check Your Teacher Friends on Their Social Justice Activism
One late Sunday evening, I was scrolling through Facebook and decided to check on one of my friends and former colleagues. I went to his page and saw lots of pictures with his wife and children in...
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