Right before the pandemic, I got a contract to write a book about Black teachers and their teaching. I was so excited. I would finally share something I loved about the people I loved, including myself.

Every elephant video and documentary spoke to me about the profession–the vocation to protect children in community with others…to remember where food and water was in spite of the long journeys of exploration. Taking the defensive position to encircle until safe the young beyond the threat of earth shaking beneath their feet.

Dealing head-on with the “elephants in the room” is a charge of the Black teacher, done subversively but clearly to the protected.

As I watched well-known authors publish parts of the revelation, I started to pick up my pen less often, taking fewer notes as I turned the pages of others’ books. How do I compete with tenured, R1 professors telling their stories, these histories?

It is time to pick up the pen again…

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