Today, my district hosted a Teacher Fair.  It is a day of professional development for teachers by teachers . Teachers organize the fair and teachers run all the sessions.  It is an amazing, high energy day.  I presented on Project Based Learning (See my Documents page for the presentation and materials.  I’ll post more about that later, but first I have to talk about the keynote speaker who was AMAZING!)

The keynote speaker for the day was Cornelius Minor, a teacher in Brooklyn who works to support equitable literacy reform. He is the author of “We Got This”. (I ordered it right away; I can’t wait to read it!)  I sat with rapt attention while he spoke. He talked about inequalities in the educational system such as girls being underrepresented in science and technology and black males experiencing disproportionate levels of discipline.  He explains that racism and sexism and classism are NOT personality traits; they are systems.  He defines a system as “rules, practices, policies and customs that lead to inequitable outcomes for certain subsets of people”.  These rules are “baked into” our educational system.  He claims that the work of being “anti-oppressive” is by changing these rules, practices, policies and customs.   We need to begin the work in our own classrooms.

Looking at your own classroom and school as being oppressive is hard!  “But I’m not racist”, I was thinking.  “I’m not sexist or classist”, I assert.  I work very hard to treat my students equally and to make them believe that they are all equal.  But maybe, could oppression be hiding in my room??  Where can it be hiding??

According to Cornelius Minor, there are a lot of places it can be hiding.  It can be lurking in :

• Decorations
• Grading/Expectations
• Disciple Policies
• Curriculum
• Recess Habits
• Adult/Student Relationships
• Relationships with Families
• Communication
• Community Traditions
• Classroom Culture
• Seating Arrangements
• Classroom Procedures

Wow!  This gives me TONS to think about.  I think I’ve done a good job in some areas.  I’ve worked hard to make my curriculum less France/Western European-centric and more inclusive of Africa and Caribbean Francophonie. I make sure that I now use a variety of races and genders when using pictures for presentations and flashcards.  (Imagine my chagrin when I realized I was guilty of using a male for a picture of a doctor and a female for a nurse when teaching professions and had many white faces and not too many faces of color).  But when I look at some of the other areas, I’m not so sure.  Does my classroom culture ignore the quiet girls and focus more on the loud boys?  Do I not take into account the kids that couldn’t do their homework last night because they had to watch their younger siblings while their parents work? Do I use grades as punishment as not just as a measure of mastery?  Definitely to be continued!