Tag: education

Blame the idea

At the beginning of a school year (as a veteran educator) there is so much that I own as the adult leader in a classroom environment

I own my responsibility to provide quality information to the people in the room

I own the mistakes in my own analysis

I own the outcomes of failed experiments (knowing that there is as much to be learned in things that don’t work as there is in things that do…perhaps even more)!

These are OPPORTUNITIES to release perfection and lean on the moment. The safety of getting things “right” the first time is often a trap of false security that creates toxic culture and thinking.

This time of year is also the beginning of the end of outdoor sports. I love to watch tennis and CG is emerging as one of the greatest in the game right now. She understands that “losses make wins more special”! Applying sage notions about life to her tennis game–her job and daily flow. This interview and its key messages about coaching are not obvious by this headline and thumbnail.

As educators, we perhaps have bought into the idea that we can “fix” what is broken:

In schools

In students

In communities

We can’t.

The Truth About Reading and The Right to Read loom large in my thinking about what is happening right now. Who am I? What am I supposed to be doing when so many people are struggling?

Everything that CG said in that interview is making me think about what we must do as teachers–be coaches that remind students that they did not come to us empty or with-out.

“We can guide them, challenge them, hold up mirrors to help them see what they cannot see by themselves…”

We betray the community when we stop believing they can (and we can) be solutions to problems.

We have an important relationship with our work and the people in our workspaces. We can’t fix them (nor should we try). We have to trust that approaching the work with honesty and integrity will be sufficient.

So what ideas am I blaming?

Distrust

Dishonesty

Disingenuity

Dysfunction

Discord

So how am I responding?

Gemstones of Multicultural Education: Celebrating Milestones in Education Theory

Like this AI-generated geode, the layers of necessary discussion that we need to have in 2024 are both tragic and brilliant. Tragic because our abuse of the natural world is so profound that gems like this are rarely discovered anymore. Brilliant because at some point in human history, we have imagined this beauty…in all of its glory and intention…we can see it. The slow process that creates magnificently large crystals and the fast-pace of change that reveals the stones after a storm.

Image available online at https://www.freepik.com/premium-ai-image/closeup-shot-blue-gold-crystal-sapphire-geode-gemstone-with-selective-focus-depth-field_334373811.htm

This piece is a celebration of multicultural education’s past, present and future in the discourse about reform. In 1974, James A. Banks published an editorial in the ASCD journal that admonished educators to uphold a type of cultural pluralism that celebrates diversity as a strength and ideal product of democracy. Fifty years later and only days after a national election that has many people wondering ‘what’s next?’ our commitment as citizens must be to education…learning that empowers us to be better humans. In his editorial, he wrote:

…the school has a responsibility to teach a commitment to and respect for the core values such as justice, equality and human dignity expressed in [American] historical documents…

Written 50 years ago, these words have reached GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY status. In search of definitions and goals for multicultural education, James Banks’ works have formed an important foundation for generations of educators since.

Written 30 years ago, as a foreword to a brilliantly written book, Scholar John Henrik Clarke, gave us pearl statements about solidarity when he wrote:

What is the relationship between the dominant modes of European thought and the dominant modes of their behavior towards others? If the people in Africa and Asia and the former European colonies are to emerge into full independence, statehood and world responsibility, they will have to answer the above question creatively and in their favor. Then, in a collective sense, they will have to participate with others in a world that can be free, that can recognize European influence without accepting European dominance (p. xvii)

Thirty years is the PEARL ANNIVERSARY. We are Black pearls, unique and special, fabricated and precious.

Written 25 years ago, Geneva Gay first published her treatise on culturally responsive teaching. A guide for the field on theory, research and practice, the seminal work has served as a guide for so many…like flecks of silver embedded in native rock, the material left untouched is taken for granted. Chipping away at the outside though, you can see its simple brilliance, especially if you listen as it is excavated from the noise of rigid structure that only yields in disaster.

Twenty-five years is the SILVER ANNIVERSARY; a hard-fought victory of longevity for those who can achieve it.

How do we, in education, celebrate small milestones: one year or five? Education Week knows how…the PAPER ANNIVERSARY and the SAPPHIRE ANNIVERSARY are great opportunities to be reflective on where we have been and what we have done as teachers. Cultivating Genius (2020) and Unearthing Joy (2023) are right there! Gholdy Muhammad’s works are joining this beautiful mine of gems about multicultural education. Providing frameworks for equity, she challenges us to form cultivating genius and joy collectives…we can do it.

Happy Anniversary.