Dedicated to Dr. Toni-Mokjaetji C. Humber
So, I have felt the consequences of people just talking about things. Recently I learned of my city's school district will be closing a school at the end of this school year. There were some in my community who were surprised. I wasn't surprised at all. For the last 18 months I have attempted to get a bird's eye view of my city's school district's problems and identify possible ways to be part of the solutions. During that process I learned of the devastation COVID had on our schools, on top of the issues that were already there. I learned of the declining enrollment in our school district which led to a decline in other things…like teachers and staff quitting in the middle of the school year…so now the district is between a rock and a hard place. The district pushed for a school bond to help address some of the school district deficits…and the voters (collectively) said no.
Talk didn't end de facto bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama. Desegregation of buses required action. The Montgomery bus boycott lasted 381 days. But, if you do your homework, the action needed for change started long before the bus boycott. Before and after the boycott, to achieve the desired change, sacrifices and losses were part of the process. Some individuals who fought for change were unjustly placed in jail, physically attacked, and even faced financial hardships (more than the hardships they were already facing before the boycott). For some, the boycott required sacrificing sleep, food, and/or economic opportunities. Yet, collectively, they kept fighting for the greater good. It required alliances and a willingness to do things outside the box. There are valuable lessons that can still be applied today, if we are willing to do more than talk about change.
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| Teacher Action Motto: I do, we do, you do |
I am a teacher/professor. Many teachers don't see what we do as simply a job…teaching is a profession. It is something we do for the long haul. The invested teachers don't just talk about student success being important, we put in the work to create success. Often, the success we want to see does not come right away. We tend to have to learn how to work around setbacks. Some setbacks are from those in leadership positions within the education systems; some come from a failure between the student-parent/guardian-teacher partnership. Some setbacks come from policy makers. Sadly, some setbacks come from fellow teachers and community members who claim they have students' best interests in mind but do more harm than good. Regardless of the barriers, teachers are expected to make success a reality. It's a tough ask because it's like asking someone to run a race with an anvil chained to their ankle and beat someone who has nothing holding them back. Yet, many of us who have survived various forms of opposition still make it happen.
Despite the current opposition for long-term success of my city's school district, I believe those of us who act for short and long-term best interests of my city's school district will eventually get the students, teachers, and staff what they need. Like the Montgomery bus boycott, we cannot underestimate the opposition. We will often have to work twice as hard to maintain our integrity and be innovative against the opposition. We can't be complacent or only seek action when it is convenient. We can't make the mistake of seeking to appeal to the opposition's logic or humanity, because that's not the root of their resistance. So much of the opposition is full of misinformation, fear, and covert discrimination. We must be willing to expose those who lie, the impact of their lies, and the truth of their opposition. That's not easy…that might get a little messy. But getting the victory for things that matter requires sacrifices that don't always look the way we want them to.
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| Naysayers to change...We'll keep trying! |
Be well!
-Elgrie J., action-oriented educator/community
member
