A white educator reflects on this reality: Most teachers in the United States are white, which means that many children of color don’t have academic role models who look like them.
When the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights mandated diversity trainings for this school district, everyone pulled together to make some serious changes for the better.
Hannah teaches high school social studies in the Greater Boston area. Specializing in post-Reconstruction American history and AP European history, Edsall pursues teaching history from multiple perspectives using primary sources and strives to make history relevant to her students. She is also the advisor for her school's social justice club, where she spends afternoons discussing prejudice, discrimination, politics and current events with over 20 students.
Educators need to recognize the doubts that students carry, this former elementary teacher says. But in doing so, educators should emphasize to students that doubt can lead to learning and growth.
In this lesson, students will describe aspects of their identities such as race, gender, ability, religion and more. Then after exploring Marley Dias' Black Girls Books campaign, students will analyze book illustrations and write their own book review noting how characters are similar and different from them.