Rigorous research suggests that low-income, nonwhite students in urban areas tend to perform better if enrolled in charter schools instead of traditional public schools.
In American schools, black children are less likely to see teachers who look like them, so Kandice’s role is essential for self-esteem building and cultural empowerment for her students of color.
Last week I had the privilege of sitting down with a board member who voted in favor of keeping the name out of respect for the individuals who live in the Lee District. It was one of the best conversations I have ever had in my life. We approached one another as human beings. I sat at a table across from an American who looked different from me and allowed myself to become vulnerable with the hope of reaching the heart.
Today’s technologies allow us to view open and blatant acts of racism. Like reality TV, our actuality of racism is now displaying on every platform of social media known to man, which is where the waterboarding of racism begins.
A lingering cultural construct that brands Black boys as “bad dudes” and Black girls as young “angry Black women” stems from the same dark ignorance that caused the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and decades of racist policies passed by state legislators and policy makers. The truth is, they were the architects for what are now today’s educational equality gaps
Their essays were symptomatic of my lowered expectations for my students of color.
Today’s legislators are treating lower and middle-class students and public school teachers, of every race, to the likes of, how white legislators treated African-American students and their Black pedagogues during legal segregation.
