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Teaching For Black Lives
Edited by Dyan Watson, Jesse Hagopian, and Wayne Au
Item #:
9780942961041
Price:
$29.95
Teaching for Black Lives grows directly out of the
movement for Black lives. This book recognize that anti-Black
racism constructs Black people, and Blackness generally, as not
counting as human life. Throughout the book, the authors
provide resources and demonstrate how teachers connect
curriculum to young people’s lives and root their concerns and
daily experiences in what is taught and how classrooms are set
up. They also highlight the hope and beauty of student activism
and collective action.From the Introduction:
"Even when teachers include African American history
[in their curriculum],
they often fail to consider the methods used to teach about
Black lives to Black and non-Black children. Command and
control lecture and rote memorization are not effective means
of teaching for Black lives. Indeed, teaching for Black lives
means just the opposite: engaging students in critical
self-reflection, grounding our curriculum and teaching in their
lives and communities, and orienting them towards community
activism and social transformation.
Teaching for Black lives means that we can’t relegate Black
history to certain historical time periods or events and we
must include Black lives in all aspects of curriculum including
science, math, literature, and the arts. Teaching for Black
lives also means considering the loneliness of learning about
one’s history when you might be one of a few students in class
(or few teachers in a school) that this history represents.
When Black history and Black contributions are denied in the
curriculum and by those who teach it, Black people are
themselves denied. Consequently, students who become
disinterested in a course or vocal about its shortcomings and
historical erasure are often labeled defiant and pushed out of
the classroom. These students may then get swept up by police
officers stationed in school and be hit with criminal charges
for behavior that was once handled by school administration. If
the offending student is sent to administration, they are often
required to implement zero tolerance discipline policies
prescribed by the school district that mandate suspension or
expulsion for various infractions. When a decision to suspend a
student is left up to an administrator’s discretion, Black
students are far more likely to be punished than their white
peers. When students miss school, they fall behind in their
classes and are more likely not to pass. The pipeline continues
with the lack of tutoring programs, counseling services,
college access programs, after school programs, healthcare,
proper nutrition, and other support services that would assist
students who are falling behind. And if a student makes it
through that gauntlet of perils, high-stakes end-of-course
exams are waiting to deter them from graduating."Book,
382
pages.
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