Rethinking Schools (ICE in Schools)

 

Recipes of Resilience: 

I thought that this article was very well written, it was engaging and palatable to people looking to learn more about the realities of students and educators. Ross Irons writes about a community based gathering that was aimed at building collective community and reminding the community that they aren't alone-- which is especially important when the realities are so terrifying. There were a couple lines specifically that caught my attention-- "You don't deserve this". 

The idea of someone "not deserving this" -- no one deserves deportation, no one deserves the dumanization that comes with with ICE, with the criminalization of existence, and with the violent removal and uprooting that comes with deportation. 

It's more than people not deserving it and also it's more than making salsa verde with your students and having second graders cut up cebollas and bringing the community together. Resilience is community, it is togetherness but also at the same time the only word I have to describe it is cute. It's cute that we have these grassroots groups that are coming together to have community and feel like we're doing something. I wish it were helpful, more than just passing out Know Your Rights cards (I have many if anyone would like some), more helpful than hosting information sessions and restorative justice circles (which I have also done), and more helpful than being cute as a community. I wish there was actionable steps we could make to create real change, to get ICE agents off the street, to stop people from wanting to BE ICE agents (ICE hires very easily and pays a lot), I wish the president would follow the law, but most of all, that immigrants and immigrant communities were no longer dehumanized and targeted. 

Increasing the Possibility of Liberation for All: 

This interview highlighted the utopia that exists in the imaginations of not revolutionaries-- but regular people who hope for a better world. It starts with the idea that everyone has what they need, in a world (world being a placeholder for the word "place", the United States of America) where people-- and many people at that are struggling to get their basic needs met, it's hard to plan for a world where people's more than basic needs are met. These needs are listed as food, shelter, education, health and beauty, clean water, and art.

It's really powerful to see a list that truly does meet a lot of the needs of a successful population, I'd add to that-- community, connection. 

Ruth Wilson Gilmore describes abolition as an evolving and expanding process of generating questions-- and Mariame Kaba answers that we can answer questions and ask more questions with imagination. One tangible step that she suggests is creating a "social dreaming lab" where students are asked to talk about what they want from the world and from their lives. 

I think that this could be really impactful with the right community of students and framed the right way. I could see it working well if framed in a serious way, but I know for a fact some of my students would say things like "I want to fly". I wonder how we can talk about imagination and creativity, how we can introduce more steps of an abolitionist classroom by framing it the right way-- what would that framing look like within different age ranges? 

Another thing that has been on my mind, especially after having experienced my third grade students take RICAS and in reading about abolition, liberation, and change, I can't help but think how literacy is so closely connected with liberation. At the beginning of the school year it was really hopeful to think that my student who came in crying and saying "I can't read" would feel like he found even a bit of literary success. But after seeing him crying for around an hour while taking RICAS-- what do we do. Literally, what can I do? What can I do when my school cares so much about curriculum and grades and test scores? How do I teach my student to read, how do I have my third grade student catch up two grade levels while he's in my class. I am only doing what I can and am giving myself grace as a first year teacher but as the school year winds down, I can't help but feel like I'm failing. 

I'm failing my students and we (collectively, us) are failing the world (the world both literally and the world as in, the rest of us). 

Sex and Gender Based Systems

 RI Laws and Policies:

I noticed a lot of writing on bullying and being safe from bullying, protections in place to eliminate bullying for trans and gender-nonconforming youth, the laws do a good job at situating the importance of why we (RI) collectively needs guidance and laws regarding sex and gender. Students status is protected under Title IX and their education records. The guidelines state that there can be no discrimination due to gender or sex. 

The policies also introduce different key terms that are important when understanding the identities and realities of different LGBTQ+ people and students. 

The laws also include access to restrooms, locker rooms, and changing facilities that the student identifies with. 

Connection: This makes me think a lot about the attention that transgender athletes in college sports was receiving-- some people, particularly conservative people, felt as though transgender athletes should not be able to compete with the group that they identify with. The argument just seems silly to me, there, during the peak of this argument, was a single digit number of college-aged transgender athletes competing at a Division 1 school. Their argument seemed uneducated, unaware of the transitions-- both medical, social and aesthetic that many transgender people choose to engage in. It's also interesting to me that most of the attention was geared towards MTF athletes (male to female) which aligns even further with the much too common targeting of dolls and transwomen. 

Providence Schools Nondiscrimination- Transgender and Gender Expansive Students Policy: 

It makes sense to me while reading that the PPSD policy is aligned with the state's policy-- especially with explicit mentions of bullying and harassment along with explicitly naming and identifying key vocabulary that is needed to understand the identity of LGBTQ+ students. I really appreciated the specific point on names and pronouns and the fact that students have a right to be addressed by a name and pronoun that corresponds to the student's gender identity. It's also very powerful to have a specific point on allowing transgender students to be able to participate in sports that are aligned with their identity. It also seems powerful that "each school shall form a point team that will serve as a visible resource for all students who have questions and concerns regarding any issues related to gender identity and expression", I wonder who these people are, what kind of people these teams consist of, especially considering clubs like an SGA aren't popular until secondary education but PPSD also includes elementary ed. 

It's also interesting to me that training is required for all staff members, who are the people who are training the staff and what kind of follow-up is required?