We tracked 90 hate incidents at schools in October alone—and that’s only what made the news. Just as important is the way schools respond, and in most cases, those responses don’t measure up.
Trying to reconcile education and the world we currently inhabit has led one teacher to shift the focus of his teaching to nurturing active participants in a diverse democracy.
This former high school history teacher now realizes that she failed her students by sticking to the subject matter and neglecting what’s most important about education. She’s worried her fellow educators might be failing too.
Dr. Shantá R. Robinson holds a B.A. in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Asheville and an M.A. in public administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She earned her Ph.D. in educational studies at the University of Michigan, where she specialized in the sociology of education; qualitative methodologies; and issues of race, class and access in secondary schooling. She began her professional career as a high school history teacher in Charlotte. Robinson’s research interests include the role of social identity in marginalized students’ educational
Our democracy desperately needs diverse voices to engage in mature dialogue if we are to ever find compassionate solutions to our common problems. Schools must be where young people learn to do this.