The why

It seems like this goes without saying, but here is my rationale for providing a classroom library that inspires, is engaging, and that kids can relate to.

1. Reflects the World: A diverse library reflects the multicultural and multifaceted world we live in. It helps students understand and appreciate different cultures, perspectives, and experiences.

2. Promotes Empathy and Understanding: Reading about characters from various backgrounds fosters empathy. It allows students to see the world from different viewpoints and understand the challenges and joys others might face.

3. Encourages Inclusion and Belonging: When students see themselves represented in the books they read, it affirms their identity and experiences. It helps them feel valued and included in the classroom environment.

4. Expands Horizons: Exposure to diverse literature broadens students’ horizons. It introduces them to new ideas, traditions, and ways of thinking, enriching their learning experience.

5. Combat Stereotypes and Bias: Diverse books can challenge stereotypes and counteract biases. They provide nuanced portrayals of characters from various backgrounds, breaking down harmful generalizations.

6. Enhances Critical Thinking: Reading diverse perspectives encourages critical thinking. Students learn to analyze and question their own assumptions and consider multiple viewpoints.

7. Supports Academic Success: Research shows that students who feel represented in their reading materials are more engaged and motivated. This can lead to improved literacy skills and overall academic performance. Also, reading from a wide variety of genres helps increase vocabulary and schema.

8. Builds a Respectful Community: A diverse library helps create a classroom culture of respect and appreciation for differences. It sets a foundation for a more inclusive and harmonious community.

Incorporating diverse books into our classroom library ensures that ALL students have the opportunity to see themselves in the stories they read and to learn about the experiences of others, fostering a more inclusive and empathetic learning environment.

 

 

Connect with other Educators on Spoutible

If you are like many other educators, you may have recently felt the need to change your leading social media presence for one reason or another.

It is inspiring to see a new platform that checks all the boxes (see below). This new platform is called Spoutible and was created by Christopher Bouzy. From his profile and introduction: “When I was 9, I started coding on a Mattel Aquarius computer, and when I was 30, Avanquest USA acquired my first encryption product Cloak. In 2018, Christopher Bouzy (@cbouzy) launched Bot Sentinel to help fight disinformation and targeted harassment.”

We need to get the word out to let other educators know about this new, great platform and all its advantages. That’s where you come in.

Below I have shared some Spoutible FAQ’s and a Google Form/Sheet that will allow us to make “waves” on Spoutible.

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FAQ

• About Us-Welcome to Spoutible, a social media platform that is committed to creating a safe, inclusive, and enjoyable online space for all.
• Features: And now they’ve got Pods, TownHall Meetings, and more.
• Comparables (Source: Yahoo Finance 02.21.24)
  
• Appearance-As you can see from the chart there are Hashtags, Threads, easy-to-add GIFs, and DMs and Bookmarks, to name a few.
• App- Android     iOS

Some screenshots:

All aboard!

1. Go to Spoutible.com
2. Create a Username and Password
3. Enter your email
4. Click Sign up
5. Create your Profile; check your Profile Settings
6. Start spouting off 🐳

Spouting Off

🐳Spouts can be up to 300 characters. They may include photos, links, GIFs (embedded GIF generator), video, emojis, polls, and up to 3 collaborators on a thread.

🐳You can view Likes, Echoes (reposts), Quotes, Bookmark, Pin, Copy links, and Share to other platforms.

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Connect with other Educators on Spoutible

Now here’s where you come in. To help us connect with each other, please use the Form linked below to share your Spoutible contact information after you have created your account.

🐳Share your Spoutible contact info –

Google Form Link

Here is a link to all the submissions so far: Google Sheets link

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Looking forward to connecting with everyone.

Teaching about enslavement

Presidential candidate Will Hurd put it so well in his recent tweet: “Unfortunately, it has to be said – slavery wasn’t a jobs program that taught beneficial skills. It was literally dehumanizing and subjugated people as property because they lacked any rights or freedoms.”

I wonder if members of the DOE in the State of Florida have actually read any of the first-person narratives of enslaved peoples? They are quite easy to access; they could start with the Library of Congress. And while many of these narratives reflect a feeling of goodwill from masters, it is best to remember the context. These fellow human beings were dehumanized, treated as property, and always subjugated to their owner’s whims.

This, then, is the only way in which this could possibly happen in a country that professes such ideals as:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Preamble to the Declaration of Independence

The slave owners must have ignored reality and acted under the belief that these human beings were not fellow human beings at all; they were property to be bought, sold, and dealt with however the property owner wished. Are we carrying out this same belief today that we can simply reframe reality to make it bend to our bias? Are there certain self-evident truths?

The whitewashing of history that is being proposed ignores the fact that our country was born with a compromise to allow for the enslavement of human beings. That legacy continues to thread through much of the socio-political maelstrom we still confront. We see it on the streets, we see it in the courts, we see it with policing, we see it in our government – Senate, House, Supreme Court, and the Presidency.

Rather than whitewashing, we must diligently use our history as a lens through which we make our decisions and policies.

 

Distractions

Much of the discussions in the media are distractions, pretty ways to trim a pie crust.

I posit that a few of the latest significant distractions are Reading Wars and Woke vs. Anti-Woke.

I propose that the end of petty localism is long overdue. It is time for real nationwide action. I realize to recommend the actual federalizing of our education system flies in the face of current events. Still, we have historical precedence from the Sputnik Era:”…Indeed, while Congress may have been hesitant to expand the federal role in research and education before, the investments seemed inevitable, even vital, after the Soviets made their move toward the stars…”

 

Does the system of state education superintendents setting standards and local school boards adopting curricula continue to best serve our nation, especially against the following threats? 

1) Climate Crisis
The genuine possibility of a manmade extinction event eclipses any and all previous challenges. Could not a cohesive education system play a prominent role in fighting a threat tantamount to WWIII?

2) Class Wars

The relationship between class wars and “Wokeism” is a complex and multifaceted topic that can be approached from various perspectives; thus, the sound bites we get on the media cannot quickly address it. We are in the midst of a giant shell game.  The masses get distracted by false dichotomies; meanwhile, the top 1 percent owns over half of U.S. corporate stock, and the 9 percent — owns almost all the rest of U.S. corporate stock. The number of billionaires in the US has risen from 66 to 614 since 1990. Then there are the rest of us who seem to have the least power and increasingly fewer options. Although I must admit, I am a minor player in this system since my retirement plan makes investments in the same system. In addition, funding for our schools is often based on property values, a system with inherent inequities. Again, should not our education system be educating the 90% about this threat?

 

Instead, here are some of the ways our “system” is addressing these issues:

1. Defunding free public education; Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Miami, Ohio
2. So-called Anti-Woke legislation
3. Some of the top 10% get loans forgiven, but many with student loans are not
4. Climate Crisis not being taught
5. Reading Wars

Of course, I realize that these few websites cannot begin to address the multifaceted nature of this discourse, which is beyond my purpose: to promote the idea of a much more vital national role in education.

I’ll leave with a quote from George Bailey-It’s a Wonderful Life:

 "Now, we can get through this thing all right. We've got to stick together, though. We've got to have faith in each other."