Celebrate This Week: Provoking Dialogue and Debate

I've been reeling since I heard (and saw) the news of the student in South Carolina who was thrown from her desk and the classroom by a student resource officer. I've tried to stay on the DL about my feelings regarding race on Facebook, at least with regard to initiating conversations in my own space. I've remained comfortably silent because I didn't want to get into the social media equivalent of a screaming match with friends and family who hold differing viewpoints than mine and might suddenly find myself with contentious feelings both from and about me.

But that's a coward's way of thinking.

And my One Little Word this year is Brave.

So I need to be brave and have these hard conversations and pose difficult questions, otherwise I'm not being a positive agent for change. My blog's title IS Use Your Outside Voice, after all. I'm a hypocrite if I don't speak up for my own beliefs.

So I posted something provocative on Facebook about what happened at Spring Valley High in South Carolina and sure enough, it raised some ire. But it was also done in a mostly respectful and productive way despite the differing and sometimes heated viewpoints.

In the end though, we need to welcome that kind of dialogue and debate. If our social media spaces are just echo chambers of our own views and we unfriend everyone who disagrees with us, then that is going to be a rude awakening for you when you leave the comfort of your electronic devices and have to interact with real people in the real world who believe and behave differently than you.

I want us to talk ABOUT these things. We can't do that if we're talking AT each other or we're afraid to speak up because we fear confrontation so we just unfriend people who don't agree with our way of thinking. So as long as it stays respectful, I'm going to keep talking about tough topics and posing hard questions. And we can all stay friends... even when we disagree sometimes.

Celebrate This Week was established by Ruth Ayres

The complexities of the human condition

Like so many of us, I have been fascinated with the Rachel Dolezal story. I just finished watching the Today Show interview with Matt Lauer and as I watched, all I could think was no matter what your opinion of her, this whole situation feels like a racial tipping point for our country. No longer can we sweep difficult discussion about race under the rug because they are "uncomfortable." Now we have an impetus to start having the conversations that our white privilege has afforded us the luxury of ignoring.

While Dolezal has been painted as a deceptive villain in recent days, what struck me about her interview is how complex humans really are. Rachel is not all bad or all good. There are facets of her behavior that we can feel compassion for and others where we can clearly question her motives.

It's easy for us to try to paint a person as one thing. As teachers, we have a tendency to do this with our students: the bully, the bookworm, the slacker. But in reality, our students are complex and lead rich lives beyond our classroom walls. The same is true for all of us, even those we publicly shame on social media.

Once the public feelings of outrage and schadenfreude along with the sensationalistic media fallout has subsided, what is left behind I think will perhaps be a milestone for race relations in the U.S. As much as I've been perplexed, on occasion outraged, and even a tad amused as this story has unfolded, what I keep coming back to is that Ms. Dolezal is no one thing; she is many things. As are we all. And despite the fact that all of this is happening at her expense, I think she may have inadvertently solidified a cultural practice that will usher in an era when everyone can openly discuss race and matters of identity without it being considered verboten. If some good can come from this, that is my hope.

The universe honors love

I've been thinking a lot lately about the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. Back in April I read the book Love Will See You Through where MLK's niece writes about his six guiding beliefs. The one that really stuck with me the most was

The universe honors love.

As much as I love social media, it's really difficult to avoid all the vitriolic hate speech that pervades this medium. Whether it's the media feeding frenzy of Bruce Jenner's transitioning to Caitlyn Jenner, people proclaiming that all Muslims are terrorists, or the lambasting of teachers as failures because they can't fight the systemic chains of poverty and racism to raise our nation's test scores, the messages that hurt my heart the most are the ones that not only imply, but seem to proclaim that in this world, it's every man for himself.

It's so easy to turn a blind eye, to spew uninformed, hateful words, and to distance ourselves from otherness.

Every man for himself? That's EASY.

What's hard is to actually look someone in the eye, listen to their story, and to see their humanity rather than hide behind a political agenda.

The universe honors love. 

So I ask you:

• Do you think all Muslims are women-hating terrorists? Have you actually tried to get to know anyone from that faith?
• Do you think all people on welfare are lazy and trying to cheat the system? Who do you personally know on welfare besides the sensationalistic stories you hear on cable news?
• Do you clutch your purse a little tighter when a black man walks by you on the street? Have you actually talked to someone about race frankly and with an open heart? Or do you just continue to perpetuate your own fear and ignorance?
• Do you look at a person with brown skin speaking Spanish with disdain and immediately assume they're taking jobs from Americans and are mooching resources because they're here illegally? Do you actually talk to anyone in the Hispanic community and try to understand their dreams and struggles? 
• Do you think gay people don't deserve to marry the person they love because the Bible says their lifestyle is wrong? Do you only talk about gay people from afar without actually sitting down and getting to know them beyond their sexuality?

I used to be the same way. I had strong opinions on what I was taught to believe about religion, homosexuality, and race, but the more I read and come to understand other people's struggles, the more I realize that everyone has a story that deserves to be heard. We are all made of stories and we should be allowed to tell them in our own way, on our own terms.

I think about the blog post I wrote for NCTE back in December where I talk about the importance of one story to give value and credence to the story of many. I absolutely believe that is true. If you don't have any personal connections to a community of people in which you are speaking about, then I challenge you to get to know someone from that community before you condemn them. It's so much easier to be hateful when you don't have to look a person in the eye. What a difference it would make if instead of looking at someone and seeing their otherness, you honored their humanity by asking them to tell their story.

Since I read Love Will See You Through back in April, I have continued to wonder what would happen if we all lived by the guiding belief that the universe honors love. I know I'm going to try really hard to do so in my own life and in my own classroom. I will look at these children as people with hopes dreams, and struggles and not just as students who are in my room 50 minutes of the school day. More importantly though, I will look each of them in the eye and get to know their stories. I challenge you to do the same.

Celebrating NaNoWriMo accomplishments and hard conversations

My 8th graders turned in their NaNoWriMo stories on Monday and they are STILL talking about how much they loved the experience. One girl said today, "I learned so much about writing from NaNoWriMo. I wish we were still doing it." Another said, "Now whenever we're asked to a short essay, I'll be like, 'this is a piece of cake' after going through NaNoWriMo." I've only had a couple students write and talk about it being a bad experience for them. Most of them said they really enjoyed it. So I'm still basking in the glow of their writing motivation. Clearly I need to do NaNoWriMo with my students every year.

In addition to celebrating their NaNoWriMo accomplishments, however, we also had some really tough conversations this week about race in the wake of all that is happening in our country right now. I was initially very hesitant to discuss such an emotionally-charged topic with my students, but overall, they were very mature and respectful, even if we didn't always agree. It was hard to hear some of the things they were saying, but I also know that sweeping this issue under the rug would have been a missed opportunity for a teachable moment. I'm glad I decided to stick my neck out, crawl out of my turtle shell, and talk about the tough stuff with them.

Celebrate This Week was established by Ruth Ayres