Equity & Diversity Blog

The Intersection: Culture and Race in Schools

Christina Torres is an 8th Grade English Teacher at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. She has worked with Teach For America, Hope Street Group, the Center for Teacher Quality, and Teaching Tolerance. Find her online: Teach. Run. Write. This blog is no longer being updated.

Education Opinion 'Those Kids:' Understanding Trauma-Informed Education
It's easy to look at "difficult" populations as "those kids"-- but, more importantly, "those kids" are OUR kids, and they are KIDS. They deserve an amazing education designed with understanding who they are.
Christina Torres, July 24, 2018
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9 min read
Equity & Diversity Opinion Hold Your Tension: Gender, Sexuality, and Comedy in the #NanetteSyllabus
'Nanette' powerfully weaves humor, art history (!), comedy theory, gender, sexuality, and the power of storytelling together. How do we use it in the classroom?
Christina Torres, July 18, 2018
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10 min read
School Climate & Safety Opinion What Can I Do Now?: A Teacher's Summer Struggle
As infuriating as the current U.S. news is, there's not much I can do as a teacher right now. The one thing I can do is prepare to hit the ground running next year.
Christina Torres, June 27, 2018
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5 min read
Education Opinion Heartbreaking Conversations With Students: Student Voice and Value
Schools are our students: living, breathing, growing, hurting and hoping all at once
Christina Torres, June 17, 2018
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4 min read
Equity & Diversity Opinion When the Stories Feel Too Hard to Teach
What happens when we as teachers are triggered by the texts we are teeaching? What happens when the stories feel too hard to teach?
Christina Torres, May 25, 2018
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5 min read
Education Opinion Slow and Steady: Valuing Conversations That Don't End Neatly
I think things are getting better. Not easier, but better. Still, we can't shy away from conversations that we know may be a little messy.
Christina Torres, May 8, 2018
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3 min read
Education Opinion Uncovering What Was Lost: The 'On Teaching' Project
We live in a world where, sometimes, it feels like educational buzzwords and the newest fads overtake our concept of "good education."
Christina Torres, May 2, 2018
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2 min read
School Climate & Safety Opinion What Schools Can Learn From Starbucks (and Vice Versa)
Unlearning the hurtful lessons we have internalized about racism will take more than just a half-day training.
Christina Torres, April 19, 2018
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3 min read
Equity & Diversity Opinion Fighting for Mirrors: Supporting Diverse Stories in Classrooms
I still remember the first time I read a piece of writing that felt like it truly understood me. I was a junior in high school.
Christina Torres, March 20, 2018
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5 min read
School Climate & Safety Opinion 'Wakanda Curriculum' Is Exactly What Teachers Should Be Teaching
We must ask ourselves not just how to make our classrooms engaging, but how to ensure it is culturally-responsive, actively relevant, and helping kids envision a world in which their identity, voice, and culture are important.
Christina Torres, March 19, 2018
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2 min read
Education Opinion Who Gets to Be Heard?: Questions in the Wake of Parkland
We must begin asking ourselves why and how we have begun listening now.
Christina Torres, February 28, 2018
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1 min read
Education Opinion A Teacher's Response to Parkland: 'I Don't Know How to Protect You Anymore'
How can I tell my students that while I'd move mountains for them, I know my body is just as feeble against bullets as theirs?
Christina Torres, February 14, 2018
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3 min read
School Climate & Safety Opinion Who Are 'America's Children'?
We are, at our foundation, a nation of immigrants and native peoples displaced by systemic oppression.
Christina Torres, January 31, 2018
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3 min read
School Climate & Safety Opinion Choices, Charters, and Competition: Why I Hope We Think Before We 'Start' Charter Schools
Is the work we're doing really driving innovation? Or is it a band-aid on a gushing wound of educational inequity?
Christina Torres, January 16, 2018
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4 min read
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