It’s the last weeks of July and if you are a teacher in the South this means you feel the tug of Summer ending and the even greater pull restarting another school year. However, somehow, as this Summer comes to a close, I feel a deep soul-wrenching pain in my spirit that questions what comes next. For some teachers, they have not seen their classrooms in a year and a half, for some of our children they have not either. But I am starting to see and hear the same “Back to School” lingo from what seems like a bygone era about backpacks and new clothes that feels like it no longer fits what our kids and communities needs in this season. At the height of the pandemic, there were some grumblings of “not going back to normal, because normal did not work” but now I barely hear a whisper of this anymore. People are so concerned with WHAT their children will learn more than they are with WHO will teach them, and HOW they will be equipped physically and emotionally to do so.
For me the WHO will teach is a huge question that seems to be missing from the conversation. I mean the facts are this pandemic has hit everyone hard with over 600,000 deaths nationwide of which hundreds of them are teachers, school social workers, principals, coaches, school custodial workers, bus drivers and the list goes one. The sheer loss of life to the very foundation of learning alone should halt us in our footsteps as we consider “going back to school” when we should be considering how we “restore our souls”. Actually, this is the real task at hand for most of our teachers and school leaders this Fall is restoration and healing from so much loss. Because the reality is there have definitely been some winners and some losers as a result of the fallout of this pandemic. Some people could work from home and juggle work and home, while essential workers had to risk their lives and even die to preserve their own lives and that of those in their home. The truth is this pandemic did not negatively impact us in the same ways that the rallying cry “ We are all in this together” would have us believe. The truth is historically marginalized, underserved people have and will continue to suffer more post-pandemic than any others. More specifically, unequivocally I believe this means poor Black people, children and communities have been hurt the most, yet with the least amount of infrastructure and people to support them. So WHO will teach this beloved community will need to expand greatly as we think about the depths of trauma and pre-existing inequities that led us to this moment. I believe WHO is You! Are you ready to teach this beloved community? Then there's the question of HOW will we physically and emotionally prepare our beloved community of young people to learn. We cannot just bring them in for Universal screeners and tests to gauge learning loss. We need to create intentional space where we can recognize what has been lost and celebrate all that they already are and will be. We must create space for an epistemology of self to transpire in and beyond our classrooms. So much of school is forcing random knowledge and facts into beings and not enough time spent on the beings knowing who they are first for this knowledge to have purpose and deeper meaning for their lives. How will we gather differently as we return to school in person? Will students still sit in desks in rows or join togethers outside in urban gardens and learn wisdom from the trees and Mother Earth? How will we gather? Will we learn from indigenous tribes in remote and physical spaces about their culture and people? Will we gather in healing circles to hear oral storytellers share their wisdom in a park? It is something significant in the ways that we gather to learn and who we learn from that I believe are almost more important than WHAT we learn. Most of our formal education in this country is constructed on WHAT we learn so we fight over it in City Halls and courts. But the new question as we return back to school this school year must not be WHAT but be about WHO will we let teach our beloved community and HOW. Teach X is looking to build this beloved community where WHO and HOW we learn is from the community around us. We know we have everyone we need to build our beloved community. We just need you to show up. You have gifts and talents that our next generation needs to see and hear about. We will create a renewed space in and beyond our schools for healing and restoration but teachers cannot do it alone. They need you. Come join our conversation this evening at 6PM and learn about how you can join our beloved community. RSVP at bit.ly/underexposedtx. In a few weeks, I will have to return back to school, but I don't want to go back to normal. I want to go forward toward hope, love and a renewed beloved community for the future. Please join me.
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AuthorEducator, student advocate and community activists. Archives
October 2021
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