A group of ten Newton teachers, and others across the country, have banded together under the leadership of Joana Chacon, Newton South High School English teacher, to organize the Educator Anti-Racist Book Club and Discussion Series, August 8-13, 2020. The event is free although donations are encouraged to pay for the array of profound and accomplished experts who will give talks throughout the week. At last count, over 100 Newton teachers will be attending the 5-day conference (and 1000 teachers from 46 states and 8 countries), which culminates on August 13 with a session led by the esteemed Dr. Bettina Love, a lifelong educator and author of Amazon Best Selling “We Want to Do More than Survive; Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom”. https://sites.google.com/view/abolitionistteachingbookclub/home
At different times each day, the notable multi-cultural speakers will give talks on how to embed Anti-Racist teaching in Teacher Preparation Programs, School and District Leadership, Teaching Social Studies, Educator Unions, English and ELL (dual language speakers) and Foreign Language Teaching. In addition, there are sessions with practical tips for educators teaching English, Math, Science, Special Education, Early Childhood and Upper Elementary.
Joana Chacon moved to Jamaica Plain in 2019 from Seattle and has made an impact not only on her students at Newton South where she teaches English and Multicultural Literature, but nationally as the initial organizer of this event. “What happened was I suggested a book club to a couple of groups—Newton South teachers and a network I was connected with in Seattle. After we had a large group (around 30), I then reached out to Dr. (Bettina) Love to see if she could join us, not expecting much, but she responded quickly with a yes. Once she was on, I decided to expand our book club and advertise, posting to Facebook and emailing a few districts. The numbers went up within hours to include other states and countries. Our group then realized what we had was big and reached out to the original 30 members with this concept of a week-long conference that started out as book club.”
When asked if she was worried about complacency setting in when several lifetimes of experience tells us that white people slip back into white privilege once the public moment has passed, Joana said, “We make it last when we embed Anti-Racism in our education system. That’s the purpose of bringing teachers across the country together for this very practical training for teachers. It will be a long journey and very complex, but teachers can be part of the effort toward changing our society.”
The Newton organizers need your help by asking the teachers you know to show your support for teaching antiracism in NPS by sending this link (https://sites.google.com/view/abolitionistteachingbookclub/home ) to the teachers you know so that all Newton teachers can take part in this transformative effort.
More directly, NPS actions should be seen as “walking the walk”, moreso than “talking the talk” or even teaching it. Here is one example of a choice that could be made that would both advance NPS’s quality of operations and put mettle to the notion that affluent suburbs can help build-up the not-just-white-folk economy:
https://hbs.me/3i85LJn
Full disclosure: I have no interest in DreamBox or Jessie Woolley-Wilson, other than a recognition of something admirable.
Young, multi-racial, risk-taking achievers of excellent change could be more highly prized than the Social-Emotional talk track so shamelessly self-promoted on paid-for-by-others forums such as this.
Mary,
What are some ways that NPS can put words into action? Can you expand upon the notion of, “the Social-Emotional talk track so shamelessly self-promoted on paid-for-by-others forums such as this.”
@jason: Merely to clarify the general to a more easily recognizable exemplar “add DreamBox as a educational tool vendor so to narrow the Male-Female Math Performance Gap that is a persistent shortcoming of current pedagogy .. AND hold-up the CEO & Founder of that company (since Jessie Woolley-Wilson will want to repeatedly visit Newton to sell, speak with and encourage her new student/customers to understand and make the best use of the new tools) as a role model and spokesperson for what women (who happens to be of color) can accomplish”. Doing that would promote the success of an on-the-face-of-it positive icon by helping them be more financially successful, in a way that happens to be in the best interests of Newton’s student population, and using budget dollars that are intended for instructional use.
Clearer? Remainder of the proof left to the reader …
Mary: I don’t understand why you feel that
“the Social-Emotional talk track (is) so shamelessly self-promoted”
It is promoted by educators across the Globe because all evidence shows that SEL mitigates risk taking behaviors, violence, addictions, racism. In addition it improves academic performance. SEL is not a program but an educational process that changes the teach to test paradigm.
It is supported by over 3600 members, made up of teachers and school-based mental providers, of the Social-Emotional Learning Alliance for Massachusetts, an all volunteer group who have been working for the past 10 years to advocate for schools that recognize that how we are emotionally and socially will determine our success, in and out of work. There is no self-promotion but only promotion of public health.
My post was about these marvelous Newton teachers who organized this event and respectfully, I would ask for your support for them.
Mitch, you say “all evidence shows..” Do you mind providing specific links/references to peer reviewed studies? I want to learn more.