"B" Blog on Going to School Documentary

 "B" Blog on Going to School Documentary

Its sad to think about what our society was like for these students and their families before the Individuals with Disabilities Act. To image that we have had the right to free and public education but our students with disabilities have only had this right since 1975 is awful. I cant help but imagine what our schools would look like today if they were originally designed with these youth in mind, but what breaks my heart in our present times is how often these youth are still forgotten about, separated and not receiving the services they need. 

Right before the pandemic hit, many schools were planning the "Rebuild our Schools" initiative and bonds from RIDE. I remember attending a community meeting about the assessment found about the schools in Cranston. This hoity toity company that has built schools in Dubai was bragging about their 21st Century designs to educational spaces and one parent, who reminds me a lot of Sandra from the video, raised a good question. "I see that your designs have a lot of over whelming color pallets and small tiles in spaces like bathrooms, what designs do you entail for youth with disabilities, my child is autistic and colors and designs like that over stimulate him. Is anyone on your team an expert on youth on the spectrum?" The simple answer was no and she was shut down. 

Ana's story was hard for me to listen to, knowing that so many of the youth I served have gone through similar traumatic situations of escaping war and other hostile living situations. It's so hard to be an immigrant in this country, we are so sheltered from the outside world, I feel we don't fully comprehend where people come from or what they escaped to come here. Then to add needing additional services on top of that, advocating for marginalize groups, especially as a marginalized person is challenging to say the least.

A really powerful moment for me was when the documentary starts to talk about the class action lawsuit. I think Rhode Island needs one, as IEPs and 504s are the number one things individual school districts get sued over. But what I found to be powerful was when a parent or caregiver was trying to get a student in a wheel chair onto the school grounds and the gate was locked, so she had to walk around another building just to get inside.  I felt this really spoke to even the physical barriers placed by schools.

A reoccurring and disturbing theme I have found is how many parents live in poverty/debt because of their child's disabilities and how many how to quit their jobs and/or change careers in order to take care of their children.

"The promise of the Individuals with Disabilities Education act will become a reality when parents know their rights and exercise them." If I can leave with a final thought, it would be this, I disagree with this statement. Yes, we should all know and understand our rights and how to advocate for what we need but I believe the Act will only become a reality when special education is no longer segregated and when every individual student gets what they need to succeed and learn. This burden shouldn't be on the shoulders of parents and guardians alone, schools need to take action and be accountable. I find it disgusting that even after the class action lawsuit, the response was to build a parent network, rather than hold individual schools accountable to their students.

"B" Blog Bell

 "B" Blog Teaching on the Intersections by Bell and 5 Tips for Being A Good Ally

I never thought of intersectionality as a lens for an educator but I really appreciated the break down. Recently I have learned about intersectional identity and I feel we brought some of this to our training/project for my summer camp staff. We played a game where staff had to make assumptions about different aspects of our identities, some you can judge pretty clearly from the outside but others you had to guess based on what little information they had from earlier activities during the day. April and I then talk about ourselves so staff could know what they did, and didn't guess right about us. The biggest take away for me was hearing one of my staff mention that what you can see on the outside doesn't sum up who we are as individuals. I hope my team takes this in mind when thinking about their students' identities.

"An identity-based discussion that directly focuses on layers of oppression might seem too difficult to navigate in class. But for Torres, raising these issues is a way of privileging her students’ identities, experiences and stories. She hears students talking about race, gender and other identity layers outside of class, giving her the green light to bring up these topics in class." I appreciate this quote because it brings to light, relevancy again, topics in class should represent the relevancy in students' lives but I wonder what tools and resources do you give educators, especially white, privilege educators to equip them for these discussions?

The following paragraphs were extremally powerful to me, especially, "Every day kids enter our class, there’s an opportunity for them to be empowered or oppressed." I believe this is, not only another example of how power plays in a classroom but an important factor in education to remember, as educators, as adults in students lives, WE have the power to keep safe, or harm our youth. I also found the Ally video to be powerful. The introduction alone, really paints a picture through the metaphor of why its important to listen to marginalized groups when you want to help, because you do not know how to help them having never been a part of their identity/ies . 

1. Understand your privilege - I really appreciate the breakdown in the simplest of terms, that privilege is the reference to never having to think about certain self identities the way marginalized people do

2. Listen - I always lift up listen with empathy, when I was beginning this work, some people would get mad at me for having nothing to say (specially the white people) but often I was listening and process what people were saying and did not feel I had either the space to speak or the understanding to do so and that's okay because I was listening to learn from others.

3. Speak up, not over - I think this is my favorite of the 5, I have had many conversations about when it's appropriate to speak on behalf of others and people are always perplexed by this idea, and creating weird scenarios like how do we give people space "at the table" instead of speaking for them. Dont get me wrong, creating safe space for communities to speak up for themselves and be heard is important but often times these spaces are not safe for marginalized people and we, as white people need to understand that and when it is necessary to speak up v. when to create space and listen.

4. It okay to make mistakes, but apologize regardless of intent v. impact - This was also something we spoke about in our training and used different scenarios and words to talk about how something may sound like a compliment for you, but is actually harmful. This was hard for my staff and while they didn't question April's story, they did question mine and had to be reminded that the intent doesn't matter, the impact hurt me deeply.

5. Ally is a verb, do the work - I'm going to give people this video after REI trainings. I find people want to be an ally but those trainings don't really lay it out for you or where to start and there is no one size fits all but I enjoyed this video with concrete steps that I think would help others in thinking about what their next steps would be.

"A" Blog for Read Woke Aloud and RI Laws and Policies

 "A" Blog for Read Woke Aloud and RI Laws and Policies

First, I did not enjoy Ki. She seems like a great and very interactive Kindergarten teacher but I was not fully engaged at some points when her voice became too childish or how long the video was- 20 minutes to read that book was too much. I understand that she was stopping and educating at the same time but it was too much, I cant imagine a 5 year old sitting and watching her for that long. However, the book was super cute and I loved the way she framed names and pronouns as how you like to be called and what makes you feel good. I think people get worked up and worried about educating youth on things like pronouns when it can be as simple as, what makes you feel good, and if you don't know, its okay to take time to figure it out, to learn who you are. I also really appreciate how she stopped the video to correct herself when she mispronounced a name. 

As for the laws and policies document, I actually appreciated how easy it was to read. I feel often times Rhode Island tried to give you guidance but its incomprehensible or they tell you they want you to incorporate things like equity but not how. Just how we broke down some definitions, it was helpful to have the ones in the guidance, especially when you are working in a school, have clear and shared language amongst staff is important - we need to work together for our youth and their safety at every level.

I found the section on dress code confusing just because I think most schools have done away with a dress code entirely. I found it equally disturbing that they basically acknowledged that there are different dress codes for different genders, "Students should have the right to dress in accordance with their gender identity, within the parameters of the dress code adopted by the school/district." If schools didnt have gender restricted dress codes, this rule wouldn't need to be in here at all. Im also curious how easy or accessible the process to appeal someone's gender identity is with Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL).

"B" Blog from Rethinking our Schools

 "B" Blog from Rethinking our Schools

Teaching the Prison Industrial Complex by Aparna Lakshmi

This article brought tears to my eyes. Reading about the youths' journeys through education in this classroom and how ultimately, the relevancy of the topic was the only reason youth engaged at all was moving. At first I thought this would be a great resource for my afterschool and summer staff because the process Lakshmi uses to gage youth on which topic they would like to study is a method we use for our environmental justice and project-based learning as well. While I believe it is still a great resource for this, what I came to appreciate most about the article and Lakshmi's classroom was her focus on one specific topic. Often times I find we try to cover to many things at once and never spend quality time on one particular topic. I selected this article to write about because of this, and the fact that within one societal problem, there's can be so many subtopics of focus, I want to support my staff in this youth voice and choice process of relevant learning.

"The best thing about this class was we got to  choose what we wanted to learn about. I did the reading and wrote the papers because I was interested in this topic." I believe this quote adds to what I began to say here, that relevancy for youth and youth voice and choice are so important. This student and many like her would have likely not participated, would have dropped from this class or barely tried to do the work. Lakshmi's class was required to complete eight two-paged papers and a 10 to 12 paged research thesis. Considering her class has students who could barely read, this sounds like a lot and I could image, very intimidating to someone who doesn't have the skills to do so. But, because the youth got to select their topic, the prison industrial complex, and a subtopic for their research thesis, they were engaged, some youth even got personal with their papers and supported each other through group table discussions.

"...The 13th Amendment: ' Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishments for crime whereof the party hall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United State, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.' " I was shocked to read this, I have spoke about prison before and understand how it is essentially slavery but never have I read the actual amendment or understood that this is an actual law, that our prisoners can be treated as slaves and its totally legal. It seems the youth in this class felt the same and did a lot of research on abolition and the history of this to fully understand it. Each week students were also presented with a couple of questions to think about and answer and I enjoy how deep and thought provoking they were. Based on the opening discission of this article not all youth agreed with each other either. Lakshmi also mentions a game they play to experience what factors make you more likely to get a higher prison sentence (race and class), I wish I had the cards and prompt because I would love to play with my teens. Being able to relate in a more hands-on way what they are learning, reading and writing about is very powerful. 

"Once students had mastered finding evidence and making an argument based on that evidence, I gradually pushed them to start proving their arguments." I selected this as the third quote because I believe it perfectly summarizes the true intent of this article - Meeting youth where they are at. Lakshmi speaks a lot about her specific experiences teaching about the prison industrial complex and how it works for her youth, but ultimately, her practices and processes can be duplicated anywhere, look completely different with a new group of youth and have the same quality effect of learning. By meeting youth where they are at; allowing them to select their own topic of interest and relevancy, presenting thought provoking questions and discussion and even grading/giving feedback in a way that does not pressure youth and is relevant to each of their personal learning and growth, Lakshmi created a space youth felt safe and proud of their learning in.

A Blog on Finn

 "A" Blog on Finn: Literacy with an Attitude

Finn argues that educating youth of different socio-economic statuses plays out differently because of the cycle in which youth and their families are raised. In the beginning he claims what our education system and culture have become is this way because different classes have different values but goes on to explain the history of how the rich class was once in fear of the working class gaining access to the Bible. They feared an upraising if the lower classes were to gain literacy. "The status quo is the status quo because people who the power to make changes are comfortable with the way things are." I feel these two statements are contradictory to each other. How can you claim education is due to different class's values but also explain that the rich and ruling class have always, and continue to control what kind of education and literacy the rest of society has access to?

Overall, I really enjoyed the stories and information collected from low- , middle- and upper class schools and communities. Based on my own experience in low- and middle class schools, much is still true in the way of educating youth. What hurt me the most is how this does play in the working classes. For example, working in afterschool and out-of-school time programs (AS/OST) , a field largely made up of people who grew up in the community they now serve continues the cycle. Only in recent years has the field been fighting for better pay after being kept in a cycle of subservient behavior. I credit this to increasing social justice movements being added to our field's programs, for many of us, we want our youth to have access to all the opportunities we never had but we cannot ask our youth to do something we are not willing to do ourselves. This is the thought process that pushed me to complete my bachelor's during the pandemic and now pursue my master's. Because most of our field's employees are from low to middle class schools/ communities, based on Finn, we remain complacent and while our field has made many strides, we still struggle to advocate for funding, livable wages and other resources needed to be successful and break our cycles.

A Blog on Johnson

 "A Blog" on Johnson: Privilege, Power and Difference

"But as a sociologist, I also know that its possible to understand the world and myself in relation to it in ways that get past the defensive feelings and give us all a common ground from which to work for change." I appreciate this quote, I have always enjoyed sociology for this reason and it baffled me in my introduction to sociology class when people struggled. Just the concept of self reflection and empathy can be a challenge to people.  While there were moments I disagreed with Johnson, I enjoyed his introduction as a way of hope for white people. Especially thinking about white people who are likely already uncomfortable with the title of this reading. Johnson focuses on acknowledging this is a we/all problem and that there are solutions.

I like when Johnson gets into language and how many powerful words are just not in our (white peoples) daily vocabulary. "People don't want to look because they don't want to know what it has to do with them and how doing something about it might change not only the world, but themselves." Its crazy to me to imagine talking about our society and not using the words to define our problems like "oppression." Many say language and using the same words and definitions are the first step to solving our problems, because when we share the same language, we can have a real conversation and understanding. Johnson goes onto say that "racist isn't another word for bad white people...", but doesn't define racism/racist. I have been in trainings where all white people are racist because their definition revolves around power, if you have the power, your racist. It was hard for me to read parts of  Johnson knowing this and not knowing his definition. 

I disagree with "this historical roots of modern racism, for example, are primarily economic." Again, Johnson never provides us with his definition of racism so I understand that there may be a point of view that I'm missing. However, to me, racism is strictly a race problem and for black people in America, it really doesn't matter what your economic status is. There are many modern studies that have found that black children of wealthy black families are still significantly behind our other youth. And may only have a small step up in their socio-economic and educational outcomes compared to other, lower class black youth. If I recall correctly, Race, Equity and Inclusion (REI) training has data proving that a wealthy black youth with a high degree of education is still more likely to be passed over for a job for a less qualified white person, therefore economic status is not the root of modern racism and the unjust issues in our society.

When Johnson begins defining and explaining privilege, one question that came up for me as a side note was, what is the success rates for diversity training? He says they "produce limited and short-lived results." However, my personal experience has become my life. I participated in The People's Institute training at the Boston Federal Bank for work in 2018-19 and have been on the journey of race, diversity, equity and inclusion ever since. Even as I changed jobs, I have continued this pursuit and focused on an antiracist lens within our organization's structure, as well as my personal life. 

Johnson argues that, as we are all part of the problem, we belong to categories of privilege. Only by naming our privilege and understanding how power plays in our American culture can we identify solutions to a more just society.

Project Proposal

 Project Proposal

For our final project, April and I would like to work together to train my summer camp staff. The theme of the camp is "Understanding my Identity and my Impact on the Environment." So we would like to focus our teach out on personal identity, power and how it shows up in a classroom.

The articles/authors we will focus on are Delpit, "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children" and Armstrong and Wildman, “Colorblindness is the New Racism.”

Professionally, our organization has deep values of diversity, race, equity and inclusion (DREI) and antiracism. I have been trying to think of more ways to encompass these values into our trainings in hopes that our facilitators, site locations and program partners will begin to intentionally practice these values in their daily lives and within their systems. While we greatly value the previously mentioned ways of life within our executive team, we offer a train the trainer model and therefore, have no real authority or say in the direct implementation of our environmental conservation, STEM model.

So the real challenge has been what are staff and site partners actually ready for and how can we offer them resources to these values in easy to digest and practice steps. By doing this staff training with April, I am experimenting in hopes of creating a DREI and antiracism pathway for our staff. Starting with self identity and understanding power, which I feel are two most important steps to comprehend and call out.

My goals are for my staff to leave with knowledge of self identity that they can bring into their classrooms and explore with youth. Appreciate each other's values and skills because they do not know each other and will be working a very brief, but intense period of six weeks together. And that they will want to come back for future program and/or pursue more DREI and antiracism learning opportunities.