On the Blog
White Progressives Have a Lot of Work to Do, and I’m Not Here to Help
When I ran for school board it was former Minneapolis mayor who was the first elected official to endorse me. She asked me a lot of questions, offered some straight talk about the political system, and spoke very clearly about what it takes to win in a whiter than white town like Minneapolis. Later, after winning a seat on the board and facing white parents who came for my head and demanded… Read More
I’m Only 11-Years-Old and I Already Make You Uncomfortable
I am 11 years old and I attend the Helen Y. Davis Leadership Academy, a charter public school in the Dorchester community of Boston focused on culture-based education. On June 7, 2020, I decided to speak at Boston’s “Be The Change” Peaceful Children’s March. I started my speech that day by quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that… Read More
Isis: A Black Girl Rising, Despite Covid-19
Before covid-19, when Isis left school, she would “just get off school.” She knew exactly what she was supposed to be doing and her teachers and principal knew as well. But in the final months of her Senior year, everything changed because of coronavirus. Isis is eighteen years old and she just graduated as a member of the Class of 2020 from Frederick A. Douglass High School. As a member of Black… Read More
Even a Pandemic Didn’t Stop My Daughter’s Charter School From Building Our Community
When developing your playbook as an educator, you learn very early on that only two things matter: You are strong in establishing a well thought out plan for delivering differentiated instruction of which you are knowledgeable, That you are even stronger at being flexible on the fly when that original plan must be completely thrown out for some reason or another. In 2020, every aspect of our national education system from the… Read More
Imagine Being Free and Not Getting the Memo. It’s Still Happening Today.
Imagine this. Working. Toiling. Being oppressed and enslaved in Texas in June 1865. More specifically, on June 10, 1865. In that moment in time, you had no idea what was to come in 9 days, nor that others had been “enjoying” the sweet taste of freedom for almost 900 days. 900 days. On June 19, 1865, in Galveston, Texas, Major General Gordon Granger delivered the news that the Emancipation Proclamation that went… Read More