Laura K Spencer, Ed.D.

Tag: EquityEDU

  • Yes, the Kids ARE Falling Behind

    Yes, the Kids ARE Falling Behind

    I keep seeing this making the rounds and figured I’d break my self-imposed blog break by going on the record as dissenting to this claim.

    This type of statement screams privilege.

    There are millions of marginalized students NOT learning these so-called life skills right now. Millions! And not only are they not learning life skills. They aren’t learning at all. Some have disappeared completely from the system. Some are struggling to access even the most basic of technology services. And some are more concerned with food and safety needs than figuring out why their mic isn’t working on Zoom.

    (Source)

    Consider the teenagers who have chosen to work rather than return to school virtually – a trend particularly prevalent among low-income Latino families – who are now at greater risk of dropping out altogether from school (Source).

    Consider the students with special education needs whose parents aren’t always equipped to help teachers fulfill their children’s IEP. If parents need to work, their child misses classes and meetings with specialists, which not only hurts academic progress, but essential life skills attainment as well.

    There are many more groups of marginalized students who are also not learning right now.

    So how exactly are these students learning the life skills mentioned by this “Bored Teachers” statement?

    They’re not.

    But you know who is?

    The students from higher socioeconomic families that are not only learning those life skills, but may also be getting private tutors or extra parental support because their parents could take time off work or readjust their schedules. They’re continuing to plow ahead with the learning the millions of others aren’t getting.

    So let’s not try to fool ourselves, or others, into thinking that all the students are just fine … that there’s no falling behind.

    Look, I know 2020 is hard (unprecedented/impossible/etc), and the demands being placed on teachers is … well… there is no word for how crazy the demands are right now.

    I get it.

    But that doesn’t give us permission to ignore the reality of the situation, even if we are tired of hearing it. Because the truth of the matter is, there ARE millions of students falling behind.

  • Reading Our Way to an Understanding of Racial Justice

    A colleague of mine, Andrew Arevalo, posted on Twitter that he had started reading White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo.

    https://twitter.com/Gameboydrew/status/1151227507804233728

    A Twitter conversation began in which people shared other books that would also be great reads.

    Here’s the books that were shared:

    • For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood, and the Rest of Y’all Too by Christopher Emdin
    • Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain by Zaretta Hammond
    • Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
    • The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels by Jon Meacham
    • We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina L. Love
    • I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
    • Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: The Hidden Racism of Children’s Literature, and the Need for Diverse Books by Philip Nel
    • A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn
    • We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina L. Love
    • Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt, PhD
    • White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
      By Carol Anderson

    Anything else you’d add to this reading list? Any of these books impact your beliefs or actions on matters of representation, diversity, and inclusion?

    And if you haven’t yet read White Fragility, or you read it and want to discuss it with other educators, sign up for EquityEDU’s book study that starts in August.

    Resources shared after the post published:

    Not Light, But Fire: How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Classroom by Matthew R. Kay