Anti-Racism

Students, families, fellow educators, and colleagues, silence is NOT an option. Our students and their families are HURTING. I do believe the path to a more JUST world is to be ANTI-RACIST.

I was introduced to anti-racism by a fellow teacher and have been striving to be anti-racist since then. Be HONEST with your students today/this week. Even if your truth is beginning the anti-racist journey now. They need to see that we are ADVOCATES. Even you creating a safe space for them to speak is helpful.

I do not believe any child is too young to have this dialogue. Even Aiden (who is 3) and I talk about race and I have ordered even more books for his library to help me with these conversations. During the week of the #GeorgeFloyd murder, I old him why I was sad. I told him that people were being mean to people who are the same color as mamma. His response, “but mamma, no one here is being mean to you.” And he is right, I am #grateful to live in a diverse culdesac in Philly with amazing neighbors. "The Philly Children's Movement" has been a great resource for me as well when having these conversations with him.

I am committed to adding several more resources in this section around race and facilitating dialogue with our young people, but here are a couple of my “go-tos”:

✊🏽 https://www.everyday-democracy.org/resources/racial-equity (I had the opportunity to be an AmeriCorps VISTA for the Study Cirlces program in Montogomery County, MD. This is when I started becoming more comfortable facilitating dialogue around race. This website has the research around the impact of “study circles”, but also many guides).

✊🏽 https://www.tolerance.org/ (my go to for lesson plans and important reminders as we have this dialogue with young people like the awareness of trauma).

✊🏽 https://centerracialjustice.org/…/resources-for-talking-ab…/ (a kid-centered list of excellent resources that is updated regularly).