Monday Musings April 26, 2021

Focus: Who gets counted?

Dear Colleagues,

Today's Musings, on this last Monday of poetry month, were inspired by the "When Poets Decide Who Counts" episode of the Code Switch podcast. This episode, inspired by the 2020 US Census, initially aired a year ago and features several poems written by poets of color reflecting on who gets counted, and what it means to be counted, in the United States. If you haven't yet experienced this gem, I guarantee that it will make a nice bookend to your poetry month.

The podcast led me to return to DEIJ-related curricular initiatives and discussions of which groups are counted, or represented, in our curriculum. How are we working to ensure that students are exposed to a diversity of perspectives and experiences? And how are we leveling the playing field in terms of access to our courses? Today I would like to celebrate the curricular progress made across the school and shine the spotlight on areas in which this innovation might be harder to imagine. (Click here for a list of DEIJ curricular innovations that the Kravis Center consulted on during the BHM design challenge.) While the process of updating curriculum is never easy, it is arguably easier to imagine how to incorporate DEIJ into humanities and art classrooms than in math and the sciences. And, even within math and science, DEIJ integration lends itself more easily to certain courses. One thinks of the connections to societal issues, ethics, and environmental racism, for example, in the context of statistics, biology, and ecology courses.

So, here are a few inspiring examples of how math and science are being reimagined at LC. This spring all math students will engage in "Graph Talks," a project designed by Lauren Riva for the Black History Month challenge. During the Talks, teachers pause their traditional curriculum and study a graph that represents a societal issue affecting underrepresented groups. The graphs constitute a springboard for an exploration of how mathematics is used to disseminate information and impact views and understanding of those issues. Lauren described these Graph Talks as a pilot and wrote that she hopes that "these types of conversations will become an integral part of the curriculum in all math classes in the future." In the science department, a working group has been investigating how to center DEIJ work within their classes. Understanding that DEIJ is about more than just representation, the working group has sought to look beyond merely featuring scientists of color in the curriculum and has investigated topics such as access to classes and student support. (Kudos to the science department and Izzy Fitzpatrick in the QRC for making the Science Resource Center available to students five days a week!) In addition, the group has led several departmental trainings on issues related to DEIJ and pinpointed department members willing to offer feedback on classes or new course materials around DEIJ issues.

I'd be remiss not to include a shout out to Writing Initiatives and the English Department, particularly Kate and Chiara, for featuring poetry from historically marginalized and underrepresented poets in the Daily Bulletin this month. If you have students who would be interested in the Poetry Month Project, please encourage them to participate. The workshop for students is tonight, and the deadline for submissions is Friday! Contact Kate Saxton with questions.

Given recent events, it is worth highlighting the connection between the theme of "counting," the Black Lives Matter movement, and the Derek Chauvin conviction. "We matter," one Black woman exclaimed outside the Cup Foods convenience store – the site of George Floyd's murder – when she learned of the jury's decision. What do you read in this remark? Triumph, pride, optimism, catharsis, as described by the New York Times journalist? Many in Minneapolis and around the world celebrated the conviction, noting that it heralded the dawn of a new, more just era. At the same time, there is much continued grief, frustration, and disbelief in the likelihood of change, particularly among communities of color. In full recognition of continued police violence targeting Black and Brown people, positive reforms in policing, environmental policy, and education are on the horizon. (See below for some related resources.)

I'll close by sharing a portion of the "Matters of the Sea," a poem we study in Spanish I, written by Cuban-American poet Richard Blanco in honor of the reopening of the US Embassy in Havana in 2015.

No matter what anthem we sing,
We've all walked barefoot and bare soul
Among the soar and dive of seagull's cries
We've proffered our sorrows and hopes
Up to the sea.
Our lips anointed by the same spray of salt laden wind,
We've fingered memories and regrets
Likes stones in our hands that we can't just toss.
Yet, yet
We've all cupped seashells to our ears.
Listen, again
To the echo.
Today the sea's still telling us
The end to all our doubts and fears
Is to gaze into the lucid blues of our shared horizon,
To breathe, together,
To heal, together.

Rachel, on behalf of the Kravis Center

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***Click here for professional learning opportunities for this spring and summer.

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On equity in education, police reforms, environmental justice

"The Magic of Mistakes: 4 Ways to Boost Critical Thinking"(Cult of Pedagogy Podcast) is a great follow-up to last week's Musings' discussion of learning loss and joy. Here's a preview: Interviewee Colin Seale says, "We're […] trying to demystify what critical thinking is, so that it's no longer a luxury good reserved for only for the most elite kids at the most elite schools. Critical thinking needs to be an aspect of what every kid is getting […] especially right now […]. We're talking about COVID and learning loss; there's never been a better time to start talking about acceleration. […] We've got so many kids who've had such little joy in their learning before all this; let's not give those same kids even less joy. Youwanna mandate something? Let's mandate joy, and we can do that through critical thinking as our pathway to build these learning relationships."

"What a Rapid Evolution in Policing Might Look Like" (Fresh Air podcast)

Open Policing Project (Stanford; published in TAG lesson plan for 4/22)

The Biden Plan to Secure Environmental Justice and Equitable Economic Opportunity

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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)

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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