Education
In ZORA. More on Medium.
As we revel in the young poet’s rising future, don’t forget there are other Black girls across the world who deserve to be uplifted
Amanda Gorman, the youngest poet laureate, astounded America at President Joe Biden’s inauguration, delivering powerful words from her original work “The Hill We Climb.” Adorned in her natural braids and colorful headband, she stood confidently, reciting words of optimism, hope, and inspiration for a better America, a country for which we could all be co-creators.
Now a household name, Gorman also performed her awe-inspiring poetry at the Super Bowl earlier this month, a first for the NFL, an organization that continues to struggle with how it handles issues of racism and injustice. Most notably, the NFL is responsible for keeping…
Entering the ’20s again with more Black pride than ever
The Harlem Renaissance was a tipping point in my education about Black history. It felt like a piece of our story that had been intentionally hidden from me — Black flourishing had no place in the American public education system, it seemed. My school’s textbooks went from slavery to segregation to civil rights to some mystical era of peace and equality that flat-out doesn’t exist.
I learned about the Harlem Renaissance on my own, mostly. And while I may resent a system that sought to diminish the value of this movement, nothing can take away from how much power it…
How this mother is challenging the way we celebrate Black history
Each year during Black History Month I share this letter that I wrote to my local library as a concerned parent in 2017. The library responded graciously and favorably and we have collaborated on the Black History Month display each year since. I share the letter because the message is always relevant and I hope it can challenge some common conceptions about what Black History Month is, remove constraints around the idea of what Black history is, and encourage others to raise awareness in their communities about Black history. …
Pandemic Parenting
An occasional column on raising kids during a crisis
Every parent — and teacher — I know is talking about schools and education during Covid-19. The pandemic has opened many folks’ eyes to issues of basic education, school infrastructure, equity, and the importance of parental understandings of concepts like curriculums and differentiated learning. In Chicago, where I live, public schools are not widely open due to Covid-19 concerns. (Special needs and pre-K public schools are open for those special populations.) The powerful Chicago Teachers Union members are not ready to go back to K-8 in-person learning — at least not until certain demands are met that preserve teacher and…
Olivia Jade sought a redemptive arc but was caught off guard with some tough love
Yesterday, the public was shocked to find out that Olivia Jade Giannulli, daughter of the disgraced actress Lori Loughlin and fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, would be appearing on Jada Pinkett-Smith’s highly addictive show, Red Table Talk. Perhaps shocked is not strong enough a word. Confused might be better. It’s been a year since the scandal broke: Giannulli’s parents paid $500,000 to an organization in order to pass off both Olivia, and her sister Isabella Rose, as crew recruits so that they would gain acceptance into the University of Southern California (USC). Life was different then. Covid-19 was not wreaking havoc…
Spoiler alert: Having intergenerational wealth helps a lot
This week, President-elect Joe Biden affirmed his support during a press conference for erasing some student loan debt “immediately.” Biden repeated his support for the HEROES Act, which calls for the federal government to pay off up to $10,000 in private, nonfederal student loans for “economically distressed” borrowers as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. …
We’ve always been vanguards of excellence, and it didn’t start with VP-elect Kamala Harris
Watching the vote counts crawl in during the 2020 election cycle, many of us lived, breathed, talked, and posted about each new vote total from counties, cities, and towns in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. As the days went on, there were first murmurs and then full-on conversations about the fact that graduates of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were bringing the fight to Republicans.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, the first woman and person of African and/or Asian descent to win the office, attended Howard University. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, whose city looks to be on track…
If you’ve been thinking about going back to school, this is your sign!
Covid-19 has ushered in a global recession. And if this recession is anything like the one of 2008, more people will apply to graduate school this year, as those out of work consider investing in higher education as a way to explore interests, change careers, and enhance job security.
On top of the fact that the number of graduate applications will likely increase this year, many academic programs, especially in the humanities and social sciences, have suspended their doctoral admissions for the 2021–22 academic year, deciding instead to focus their pandemic-impacted funding on supporting current students rather than admitting new…
Huston-Tillotson and Paul Quinn don’t pull in donations like Howard and Spelman, but that doesn’t stop them from investing in their students
At Huston-Tillotson University, a small HBCU in Austin, Texas, Zahria Touchstone found a place where she could blossom. Touchstone, 20, was student body president at her high school in Waco, Texas, where she said she was one of the few Black students in her senior class. She says classmates and teachers saw her assertiveness as “coming off too strong,” and she wasn’t necessarily encouraged to excel. But, pushed by her father to find universities to attend, Touchstone stumbled across Huston-Tillotson.
She toured the school five times and quickly felt a sense of belonging.
“It wasn’t, ‘Oh, here’s what we can…
The initiative is off to a great start, but we must address the educational gap to ensure success and understanding for Black children
Co-authored by Agya Boakye-Boaten
On July 14, 2020, Asheville City Council unanimously passed a reparations resolution. The resolution contained an apology for Asheville’s role in slavery and a promise to invest in Asheville’s Black communities to address inequities in housing, urban development, health, and education. But we as educators and parents of two school-age Black boys in Asheville City Schools recognize that community reparations for Black Asheville must earnestly prioritize educational justice.
We made Asheville our home 10 years ago when we accepted positions at the University of North Carolina, Asheville. When we arrived, we were told that Asheville lacked…
