The recent violence and hatred that erupted on August 12 in Charlottesville continues to weigh heavily on my mind and the minds of individuals across the nation. As educators begin a new academic year, many wonder if and how they should address such events with their students. At MBU, I teach courses in the College of Education that consist of current and future teachers, many of whom have the same curiosities in light of recent and inevitably ongoing political, racial, religious, hateful (you name it) events. [I think] educators of all ages have a critical opportunity to stretch students’ thoughts on tolerance, hatred, oppression, justice, democracy. This can be done in countless ways. From the perspective of a teacher educator (i.e., someone who teaches people to teach), I’d like to share one way to start the conversation.
An online graduate class, ED 606: Integrating Literacy to Improve Content Area Learning, began with a discussion during the first week of Fall 2017 classes. Students were provided with an article to activate background knowledge as well as the following discussion prompt: What is your role as an educator, and how should you respond to events like the one experienced in Charlottesville with k-12 students? The perceptions and ideas students shared resulted in a meaningfully rich conversation, and many of the ideas seemed to naturally revolve around the use of literacy to augment understanding.
Among several valuable ideas, two future teachers mentioned the idea of using crayons to encourage students to think and talk about a world with one versus many colors. Crayons! I love the symbolism and how this simple instrument can be used to foster complex and empathetic thoughts. A logical connection is the children’s book, The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt. This fun, laugh-out-loud book encourages readers to not make assumptions based on color. As follow-up to our online discussion, graduate students were encouraged to find and share teaching ideas via Twitter with the hashtag #CharlottesvilleCurriculum.
I look forward to necessary continuous discussion and academic growth with my students and colleagues this semester as we all process our role in the fight for tolerance and equity.