April 13, 2021

Focus: White Privilege Conference, April 8-10

Dear Colleagues,

As I open today's Monday Musings, I am sure I speak for us all when I say that our minds are sitting with yet another murder of a Black man by the hands of a white police officer. In the words of Clint Smith, "Thinking of Daunte Wright's family. Thinking of the greater Minneapolis community. Thinking of all the Black folks who wake up to this news again and again and again and again and again. Thinking of the toll is takes on your body, the air it pulls from your lungs. Every time."

Several Loomis Chaffee faculty (Hannah Insuik, Jake Leyden, Marley Matlack, Jessica Matzkin, Fiona Mills, Ethan Percy, Lena Sadowitz, and Sara Deveaux) attended the White Privilege Conference from April 8-10. Below we share some brief reflections on a particular moment, quote, or experience. It was an inspirational, revelatory conference, one that we hope to share with you sometime soon – please reach out at any time if you'd like to talk about any of our reflections. Given the death of Duante Wright on Sunday evening, we are reminded of the urgency of this work.

A few reflections from Ethan Percy:

"It is a privilege to learn about racism instead of experiencing it." That quote, on day one, really helped me center my thoughts. It's not a mind exploding quote but it's a great place to start in this work.
A reminder that we need to continue to bring joy to the conversation with talking about our BIPOC community. All too often our work follows a negative experience or a regularly scheduled event (MLK/ BHM).
Not every problem we have as people, as an institution, can be solved technically – as we are predisposed to think. Instead, we must see these things as adaptive challenges that require new learning, new mind sets so that we can continue to move forward and do this work.
We need to stop "being seen as…" and start being. If we are really committed to this work, then we need to be all in. A great example is holding an annual PD on DEI vs. discussion and ongoing planning to address racial bias in our community.
Finally, we must ask "what is in it for the kids"? And wait for an answer that's acceptable.

Hannah Insuik reacted to the following two quotes:

1) "Individuals may not fight for every issue, but movements must keep each other in mind and stand in solidarity" - Linda Sarsour (Friday keynote speaker)

To me, this quote allows me space, and gives me momentum at the same time. No, I may not have the bandwidth to deeply and passionately advocate for every oppressed identity, but I can throw myself behind a movement and challenge it to be in conversation and solidarity with every issue of justice. I can raise up those doing work in all areas and make sure that we are not pinned against each other.

2) "We cannot have single issue struggles because we do not live single issue lives"-Audre Lorde

In a number of sessions, I explored intersectionality as the key to creating genuine activism and authentic relationships. No two people experience oppression or privilege in the same way, and I must work in ways that leave no one behind. Linda Sarsour summarized it when she said that "winning that requires leaving others behind is not winning." I am interested in noticing and disrupting white supremacy culture in the spaces I am in on campus using intersectionality and authentic relationships.

Sara Deveaux reflected on a session entitled "Dangerous Minds: Raising Black men post the murder of George Floyd".

In this session the facilitator, Bryant Smith, spoke of the three stages that one needs to go through in order to be able to take real action. One must first come face to face with an Impact Event which leads to a Transformational Moment and ultimately to a Transformational Phase or a time when one takes real action - in this case, true anti-racist action. Can I ever arrive at a Transformational Phase, be anti-racist, without experiencing an Impact Event? When someone asks me if I have actually watched, from beginning to end, the video of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer, before this session with Mr. Smith, I would have said no because I didn't know if I "could handle" an impact event. I think that this answer, and the privilege that I have to turn away from the reality that our BIPOC community face, stops me from ever arriving where I need to be, at the transitional phase.

Jake Leyden commented on the linked illustration: Reading Anti-Racism — Brian Herrick (ebbandflood.com)

This illustration by Brian Herrick is something that I heard early in the conference and stuck with me throughout. I want to continue hearing all the experiences around me rather than automatically jumping to react.

Jessica Matzkin reflected on "Dangerous Minds, Raising Black Men Post The Murder of George Floyd".

I was struck by his discussion of Muted Group Theory and spent more time after the session reading about it. Understanding the communication dynamics of our BIPOC students has been at the forefront of my mind after a recent conversation that highlighted the impact of language and the power of voice on our students.

Fiona Mills attended a session entitled "From Sightseers to Activists: How White Neutrality Leads to Black Death".

Our session leader shared the following powerful quote from Holocaust survivor Victor E. Frankl: "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

I am continuing to contemplate Frankl's assertion of the space granted to each of us in which we may intentionally respond to moments of injustice knowing that those moments carry tremendous potential for personal growth and collective liberation.

Takeaway #1: I see many parallels between my own moments of action, reaction, and inaction and our community's response to various instances of injustice during this past year. This session really stood out to me among many during this year's WPC due to its focus on moving beyond surface level behavior, or DEIJ 101, towards substantive and tangible change. In our session we reflected upon and shared what keeps so many of us at the sightseer level in this work as we considered how white neutrality, complicity, and intentional ignorance is just as destructive as willful, active, and deliberate racism.

Takeaway #2: It is not enough for me to be an activist in my individual classroom, but that I and others committed to creating a more equitable and inclusive community must take a further step and organize others to do similar work in their classrooms, dorms, offices, etc. Simply put, if we want to truly transform our systems, we cannot act alone. As our session leader powerfully underscored, what is at stake is nothing less than millions of excess deaths for BIPOC community members. One can read the data in this 2005 article as well as in this study from Cambridge University Press.

Reflections from Lena Sadowitz:

"DEI is not the answer to racism. Anti-racism is the answer to racism." This was from a discussion clarifying white racial framing vs. anti-racist framing in organizations. If we choose language that is specific, we are more likely to develop more effective ways of being instead of focusing on "being seen as". Examples included moving away from nebulous terms such as 'diversity' and 'inclusion' to 'anti-white supremacy' and 'anti-oppression', with the goal of not just focusing on inputs, but developing outputs that help our students and deepening the capacity of a whole institution to be anti-racist. [Decentering Whiteness – Dr. Tracey A. Benson; Analyzing and Revising Policies, Practices, and Servies with an Anti-Racism Lens – Kathy Obear]

"Behavior patterns [can] begin to look like culture". [Challenging White Supremacy by Healing White Jewish Bodies - Sarah Hershey] I'll be thinking about this phrase for a long time as it opened my eyes to ways that we carry with us, and even embrace, aspects of our cultures and identities, but that may be rooted in transgenerational trauma and sadness. This idea is reflected in Monday's tweet by Clint Smith in opening paragraph.

I would like to close with Fiona's final thoughts:

"Indeed, I write these reflections as many are mourning the death of 20-year-old Duante Wright, an unarmed Black man, who was shot and killed by Minneapolis police Sunday night during a traffic stop just miles away from the courthouse where Derek Chauvin is on trial for the murder of George Floyd. I am continuing to sit with the weight of this man's death heavy on my heart today as well as the searing testimony from eyewitnesses to Floyd's death who expressed almost insurmountable regret for their inability to intervene and save his life. No matter the outcome of the Chauvin trial, for true justice to be attained, monumental shifts will need to occur in our country and none of us can afford to remain stuck at the sightseer level."

Sara

Some of my favorites from the past couple of weeks:

The Focused Brain (ascd.org).

I enjoy so much of what the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development puts out and in fact just ordered Improve Every Lesson Plan with SEL for the Kravis Center published by ASCD. This article gives concrete ways in which to keep our students focused, and the research to justify them.

How Shakespeare Helps Us Rethink Education | EdSurge News To be honest, I was drawn to this article because because I saw "Koenig" as the author. Even though the author is Rebecca Koenig and not Sara (of Serial fame), I found it to be worthwhile for any discipline.

The Unspeakables Project: The Hidden Curriculum of Compliance (constantcontact.com) I have posted this must-read in previous MMs because of the need to rethink the way educators assess and grade. How much of what I do is strictly compliance related (especially this year) and how much will I adapt in the post-pandemic classroom?

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Earth Month Design Challenge Resources

Gratia Lee has collaborated with most of the teachers mentioned below (and probably many others who are not mentioned!) about bringing their classrooms outside. Gratia is an amazing resource and is happy to either help get you started on using the outdoors as a classroom or to brainstorm any ideas that you already have.

Reach out to Gratia and/or the following teachers who have already taken on this challenge: Neil Chaudhery (Adv Bio); Sara Deveaux (French); Dan Dowe (English); Ned Heckman (CL Enviro); Rachel Nisselson (French); Stu Remensnyder (Stats); Andrew Watson (Literature of the Environment)

Please complete this Interest Form if you would like to pursue this opportunity.
The Alvord Center Engaged Citizenship Matrix provides a framework for building your lesson
Marley's PowerPoint from Friday's Faculty Meeting
What is Place-based Education

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Summer PD opportunities

Sign up here for Canvas training Cohort B or C.

Engage in Deeper Learning – Guidance and Support for Deeper Learning

during COVID-19 (deeper-learning.org)

Challenge Success

If you are interested in learning more about the neuroscience of teaching and learning or Mind, Brain, and Education science:

Learning and the Brain Summer Institutes (various dates, depending upon interest)
The CTTL Summer Academy, July 26-29, 2021

Helping Teachers Grade More Equitably (various dates available)

The Catalyst Conference | GOA (globalonlineacademy.org), April 22-26, 2021

The Institute for SEL

For Individuals & Small Teams | PBLWorks: You can attend as an individual or as a team. If you are interested in attending with a group, let Sara know.

Fellowships — Athena (teachathena.org), Research sharing, Collaboration, and Professional Development