bias
No English Teacher Gets to Tell Me How to Understand Toni Morrison
This week, the entire nation is mourning the death of writer Toni Morrison. Book lovers of all races, ethnicities, genders and sexualities recognize the genius of her art. However, for Black women,...
Teaching
Toni Morrison Was the Brave and Honest Storyteller of Our Vexed History
As a high school English teacher, I had the privilege of teaching Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” a novel I’ve read and taught time and again, and one that never fails to overwhelm with awe, silence and...
Teaching
DeVos Has Dramatically Scaled Back the Protection of LGBTQ Students
This week a report from the Center for American Progress showed that the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has dramatically scaled back protecting the rights of LGBTQ students....
Charter Schools
White People Need to Understand That Helping Is Not the Same as Controlling
A few weeks ago, I attended a conference called Educator Summit in Philadelphia. I’m not much of a conference attendee and didn’t know exactly what to expect. I stood in the back of a dimly lit...
equity
How Do We Bring Magic Into the Classroom? Georgia's New Teacher of the Year Shows the Way.
For 2020 Georgia Teacher of the Year Tracey Nance Pendley, the road to teaching was not easy. Pendley’s mother was a drug addict who was in and out of prison; when Pendley was 13, her mother died....
Teaching
Cardi B Is Teaching Us the Black History We Didn't Get in Schools
The media is all over Cardi B for making a video with democratic socialist candidate Bernie Sanders. People who don’t know her are quick to dismiss her as an “uninformed, uneducated Black woman...
