Serena Williams's reaction and its consequences is an unfortunate reflection of our school systems. Real life is hard. It's maddening. It's even harder and maddening when you're a young person of color growing up in a system built to watch you fail.
I don't think it gets "easier," but as I gain more skills and grow more with my students, I think the capacity for joy grows exponentially the longer I am around my kids.
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.
Unlearning the hurtful lessons we have internalized about racism will take more than just a half-day training.
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.
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.
We are, at our foundation, a nation of immigrants and native peoples displaced by systemic oppression.
Is the work we're doing really driving innovation? Or is it a band-aid on a gushing wound of educational inequity?
What is there to say about trying to exist in a place where your existence in and of itself is considered a burden?
'This is how it starts,' I thought to myself as I watched. 'This is how they start to silence us. They teach us to "control" our students, then they control us in the same way.'
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