White Privilege and the Politics of Personal Exoneration

I have recently read, or read again, two important pieces that I believe are interconnected and I want to take this blog entry to encourage you to take a deeper look at both of them. One is “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates and the other is Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege – Unpacking […]

The RNC and the Co-opting of Language

                  I have been watching the RNC – I admit not for very long periods of time because the hatred that I see in the faces of some of the delegates and the demeaning language that spews from the mouths of some of the speakers is difficult to listen to before my eardrums burst. […]

Two very different models for professional development

Since the new school year is about to begin, I am reaching out to Philly public school teachers to share some thoughts about two articles that came to my attention in the last few days. The first article was in the Inquirer from Aug 18th, 2015, and concerned a $2 million Gates grant given to […]

The ethical dilemma of teaching in the age of standardization

I recently read Richard Rothstein’s commencement address given at the Bank Street Graduate School of Education on May 14th, 2015. I would like to share some of his thoughts and then suggest some responses for teachers in public schools today. Here are some points Rothstein made in his speech (with liberties taken by this author): […]

MOVE and the connection to school curriculum

Today marks the 30th year since the MOVE catastrophe in Philadelphia – 11 deaths and 65 homes destroyed. This incident has, hopefully, been integrated into the public school curriculum (but I have my doubts that it even appears there). I was not living in Philly when it happened but I was watching and reading about […]

Team Teaching Part 2 – The Story of a Third Quilt

I was feeling frustrated and burned out after five years of teaching in an urban middle/high school. Looking for ways to rejuvenate my mind and my practice I began turning to the idea of joining teacher networks. There were three networks that provided the spark that I was looking for – Seeking Educational Equity and […]

Limiting the reading curriculum to writers of color

I recently read an article by Doyin Oyeniyi titled “Why I’m only reading books by Writers of Color in 2015”, and it made me reflect back to a time in my teaching career when I only used writers of color in my English class in a public middle school in Philadelphia.  In the mid 1990’s […]