From our guest writer Alisa Soriano, Lower School Assistant Principal.
Dear LREI Community,
This week, LREI has joined hundreds of schools across the country to participate in and affirm the Black Lives Matter movement by taking part in the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. This Week of Action is being led by a national committee of educators organizing for racial justice in education. The goal of the movement is to bring awareness, to affirm, and to ignite action.
The Black Lives Matter at School movement began in Seattle in 2016 when thousands of educators arrived at their schools wearing shirts that said, “Black Lives Matter: We Stand Together.” This action attracted national attention and the movement spread to countless cities around the country, including NYC. By the following year, the national Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action was ushered in.
Educators in the national BLM at School movement have developed the following demands to guide our Year of Purpose, with the goal of ensuring safety and equity in all schools, for all students.
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End “zero tolerance” discipline and implement restorative justice
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Hire and retain more Black teachers
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Mandate Black history and ethnic studies in K-12 curriculum
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Fund counselors, not cops
This year, from February 1st-5th, thousands of teachers across the country are engaging their students in lessons and activities about structural racism, intersectional Black identities, Black history, and anti-racist movements. The goal is to challenge racism and oppression and provide students with the vocabulary and tools needed to take action.
The Week of Action is guided by the 13 Guiding Principles of the Black Lives Matter movement.
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Restorative Justice
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Empathy
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Loving Engagement
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Diversity
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Globalism
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Queer Affirming
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Trans Affirming
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Collective Value
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Intergenerational
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Black families
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Black Villages
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Unapologetically Black
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Black Women
In the lower school, we have used the “Kid Friendly Version of the 13 Guiding Principles.”
Read on for some LREI highlights from the week so far.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE LS?
Classrooms across the lower school have jumped headfirst into this Week of Action. Excited to extend curricular threads already in process and passionate about the new focus on action, teachers have crafted thoughtful lessons and conversations that center on Blackness, racial equity, Black joy, and Black excellence. These lessons allow children of all ages and backgrounds to learn about the BLM principles and discuss how we can work toward social justice and equity.
Our youngest students in the Fours have been exploring what it means to be an ally or an upstander through the use of role-playing scenarios, “What can you do if you hear someone say something unkind about someone’s skin?” Kindergarten students are exploring the idea of collective action, discussing the difference between equity and equality, and designing BLM logos for stickers they will eventually share with the community. In one First Grade, students discussed the lyrics to James Brown’s song Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud, while in the other class, students focused on the principle Unapologetically Black and connected it to conversations about hair. In Second Grade, students learned about the three Black women who started Black Lives Matter and studied Black farmer activist Will Allen. Teachers posed the question, “Why do you think Black History Month was created?” Our third graders have spent time dissecting the 13 Guiding Principles with a focus on Restorative Justice and investigated how Civil Rights leaders they have already studied are connected to the Black Lives Matter movement. In Fourth Grade, students have connected Black Lives Matter to their study of voting rights and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE MS? from Ana Fox Chaney, MS Principal
Our teachers have been involved in meaningful dialogue around the Black Lives Matter movement. At a recent meeting, teachers took turns speaking about what the movement means to them as someone of their own racial identity. It was powerful to hear the whole faculty speak so earnestly and personally. Students heard their teachers speak in-depth about the importance of this movement and it created purposeful collective accountability to speak our values out loud in that forum. The meeting ended with some of our older students sharing using the same prompt. Middle school classes have read the 13 Principles and are using every Morning Meeting this week to talk about how the principles connect to their lives, creating found poems and collages to represent them. Students are also bringing their discussion of the movement into affinity groups and white anti-racist caucus spaces.
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE HS? from Allison Isbel & Margaret Paul, HS Principals
High school students and faculty are engaging in school-wide conversation regarding both the needs of reform in schools across the nation, and in the ongoing work of equity in the high school. Specifically, the high school’s student to student anti-discrimination policy was introduced and a group of student leaders are beginning to meet to learn how to address student issues through the approach of CARES (community, accountability, reconciliation, education, students). In addition, student leaders from our Black Student Union connected with lower school classes in a reading initiative designed to foster literacy and community; they are powerful illustrations for lower school children of what leadership looks like. Throughout high school classrooms teachers have facilitated discussions regarding the Black Lives Matter at School demands, and students have amplified the message of the initiative through their social media platforms.
FOR FAMILIES
Black Lives Matter in school every day; this Week of Action reinvigorates our attention. We invite you to continue these conversations with your children at home. How will you and your family take action in support of Black lives outside of school? For those of you looking to get involved in the movement, we invite you to join us. For those of you already involved, let’s continue together.
Let’s join as one in this national uprising that many say is the largest social justice movement ever, to affirm the lives of Black students, Black teachers, and Black families. This is the week of action, during a year of purpose, within a lifetime of practice. The time has always been here, the moment is now.
Looking for some resources?
- Download a list of Anti-Racist books, courtesy of Bank Street School for Children
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1000blackgirlbooks resource guide for books
We are already looking forward to next year’s Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, and every day in between. These conversations will continue. Because Black Lives Matter. Every. Single. Day.
In community,
Alisa Soriano
Lower School Assistant Principal