Dead white poets, Black teenagers, and Elizabeth Acevedo

NSFS: Not Safe for School, your snark-filled antidote to racism and corruption in education. Follow @postphdtheblog on Twitter and @allisonharbin_postphd on Instagram

What we all stand to gain from reading more diverse books, and What White People Can Do Now Part Six

Dear friends and fam,

Last week, I wrote about “culturally responsive” teaching, and the joy of Dominican American students. But rather than rant about how “culturally responsive teaching” is really just learning about your students and then teaching lessons based on their unique community/history/identity, I told a lil story about just how powerful it is as a practical tool in the classroom (which is precisely what makes it so radical). I'll be continuing this theme this week.

What White People Can Do Now (Part Six):

Emma Dabiri describes that when white people only want to hear about the “racist” experiences felt by  Black* people, it really only centers white people again. Instead, she contests:

“We should learn about non-European cultures not just because it is nice or “antiracist” to do so but because we’re stuck. What lessons might we learn from cultures with different understandings of subjectivity outside of Enlightenment humanism?”

Since September 15th is the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month, I'm going to keep talking about why we all need to read YA novelist and poet Elizabeth Acevedo, which I wrote about teaching in last week's post. Her first book, The Poet X, is written as a series of self-contained poems, but it reads like a novel. I'll be real, when I read it I was thrilled because of how few words there were-- at the time, I had about thirty high school seniors, the class median of reading skills hovered at maybe a 6th grade reading level.

But the thing was, these were 17 year olds with a full life of experiences and stories. They were highly intelligent, extremely under educated, and very disillusioned with school. They were tired of being talked down to through pedantic reading worksheets that went over the cliff note's version of Shakespeare (thus taking all the fun and complexity that is so important in Billy's drama poems, that well, it suggests public education isn't so serious about encouraging critical thinking).

The Poet X centers on the character Xiomara Batista, a teenager with a strict and very religious Dominican mother. Considering 93% of my students were Dominican-American and came from religious families, I knew that at the very least, my students would be able to relate to Xiomara. And not, say, a Jewish merchant from Venice in the sixteenth century (just sayin').

As I read the book on my long commutes from Brooklyn to Harlem (Inwood, specifically), I fell in love with the world Acevedo creates in this book. Yes, it's about a Latin American teenager in Harlem, but as with all great works of literature, touches on themes so universal and emotions so deeply personal, you can't help but find yourself in Acevedo's thrall. So, go read it for kicks.

Here's a good study that introduces the importance of student self-esteem and resilience in urban schools. As the authors state, “When improving students’ self-esteem it has been my experience that specifically instituting cultural achievements/history into the syllabus gives students a sense of pride and confidence," but in order for that to happen, teachers need to be trained on "culturally responsive" teaching and embracing diversity in the curriculum.

Full citation: Akin, Imani & Leondra Radford. University of Phoenix. “Exploring the Development of Student Self-Esteem and Resilience in Urban Schools." Contemporary Issues in Education Research- First Quarter 2018. Vol 11, No. 1

Reparation Opportunity for the Melanin Deficit:

Check out the book or audio version of The Poet X, it's a light fun read, and you'll learn something beautiful about the diverse communities that live in Harlem.

Those of you with jobs with real salaries: If you’re so inclined (and able), donate to We Need Diverse Books, an organization whose goal is to help create a world "in which all children can see themselves in the pages of a book." I think we can all agree, at least on this one small issue, that is a good thing. Check out more about WNDB here.
Until next week,

Allison

P.S. Here’s the Youtube video of Elizabeth Acevedo performing her poem “Afro-Latina” (here it is in written form)-- if you don’t read anything else in this newsletter, at least go and watch this-- I guarantee it’ll uplift you!

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