Tonya:
Thank you for asking these questions. Perhaps one small part of an answer is allowing and encouraging children to ask questions, question our authority, and to learn to work together with their peers to achieve a goal. The combination can help them in future efforts to ask the deep questions about their world, have the courage to speak up and act up, and to work with others to make change. Our daily lives in the classroom would be easier if the children were compliant but compliance doesn't create change. Compliance is overrated.
I think you're asking how we raise children who will work against White Supremacy. One part of the answer is that first we have to educate ourselves--especially white educators, including myself--about the history and the infrastructure of racism in our country and look hard at our own biases. That education is ongoing; it's never over. Thank you for bring some resources and attention to this.
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Aren Stone
Child Development Specialist
The Early Years Project
Cambridge, MA
she/her
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Original Message:
Sent: 06-28-2019 11:09 AM
From: Tonya Satchell
Subject: Effect chronic stress has on children at school - and why policymakers should care
African American children growing up poor are at greater risk of disrupted physiological functioning and depressed academic achievement, report says: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/05/22/report-effect-chronic-stress-has-children-school-why-policymakers-should-care/
What are the systems and institutions that perpetuate this cycle of poverty? How do we disrupt them? What roles do schools, school systems, and the child care industry play in addressing this issue?
Yesterday I had the honor of listening to Nikole Hannah Jones speak on some of these issues and I'm so anxious to hear what you think!
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Tonya Satchell
Columbia MD
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