A Letter to My Students

A Letter to My Students,

Dear Students,

I have no idea how this will come out at all so I’m just going to say what I need to say. Stay safe! Stay alive! There are too many kids, too many youth losing their lives over dumb stuff. Even if the stuff is serious, is it honestly worth killing over? I’ve attended my fair share of funerals for students I had when I was a teacher at John B. Kelly Elementary School on the Southwest side of Germantown. I hate going to young funerals, especially for kids I’ve had in my classrooms as students. Almost every time I hear of a student passing, I immediately go to the 3x5 cards I had you fill out in the beginning of the year. You told me your hopes. You shared your dreams. You showed me your vision. No one envisioned themselves checkin’ out early. How did we get from there to here? Should we not even make goals anymore? Should I stop asking for your 3x5 cards? Should I not get your autographs? Something won’t make me stop. Something won’t make me give up hope. Something won’t make me think that it’s always going to be like this. Some kids I’ve had at the Youth and even at King do believe that. That this cr ain’t never gonna change. I get it. When you look around and there’s not much to look at, it’s easy to think that way. But how is it that some people make it and others don’t? How do some people go on to live successful lives, whatever that looks like for them, and others don’t? Is it something in them? Is it their support system? Is it their mindset? What? I don’t know all the answers. Shoot! I might not know any of the answers. What I know is this, I want y’all to stay alive! Fight to stay alive! Fight to not just survive, but thrive! Fight to make it! Fight to grow old! Fight to help others grow old! Sure, when you look around, things look like cr. But take a second look. Look at the ole heads in the neighborhood. They lived. Look at the trees and the grass, they lived. They’re still here for some reason. Look at the papi stores. They’re still here. Listen to the birds. They’re still here. When’s the last time you saw a dead bird in the hood? How many can you count? They’re still here, eating the bread we throw down, chasing the bees around, flying above everybody else and whatnot.

2017

Just live, kings and queens! Long live the kings and queens! School might seem boring and useless and all that, but right now it’s the best thing we got going. Nah, it ain’t perfect. Nev. But the more I, I mean the more YOU learn, the more you’ll know, even it’s the path NOT to take. I feel like I’m rambling. Y’all feeling me or nah? Maybe I’m in my bag because one of my former students was shot in the head and found in Fernhill Park on Thursday. Crazy thing is, I just saw him here last year. We caught up after a 5-year hiatus. I had him in 5^th grade. Anthony Scott. That’s him. Little boy. Girls liked him a little bit. He liked to draw and be annoying to his teachers and whatnot. He was in my homeroom. Said he wanted to be a professional sports player. Then I get a text accidentally. Someone looking for their loved-one, begging them to hit them up, to call, something!

Maybe I’m in my bag. But I’m human. I think I’m strong sometimes, but sometimes that thing hits a little hard when it all comes at once. Know what I mean. Anyway, I guess we better get to work. This young Black woman was the U.S. Poet Laureate. She was the U.S.’s official poet back in 2018 or 2017 I think. Sometimes poetry helps you through rough times. Like an ode. Ode to my students:

To my students,

You can do this!

I dedicate this to you…

Okay I can’t really think of anything right now, but give me time and I can come up with one!

I wrote this during lunch as I thought about my old kid and the accidental text I got. Just had to get my feelings out on paper because I’m not about to cry in front of y’all. They tell us, especially the brothers to be tough. To not cry. They say it shows weakness. I got a secret though, I do cry sometimes. Mainly in the car, though. This new age says it’s okay to cry. Not now, but maybe later. Maybe the poetry is in my tears. Who knows? Maybe I just cried without even realizing it. Wait, was that poetic? Ard, lemme stop. Let’s get to work. Your “Do Now” for today is…

Black Boys and Their Durags: A Lesson for Teachers

My cousin and colleague in a neighboring district, Mrs. Malikah Upchurch, is out here schooling teachers on Black boys and their durags with this social media post right here. Read it. Then re-read it. Then pause before you whip out those pink slips, office disciplinary referrals, or whatever schools are calling them these days.

In her words... 

Random thought:

I need for everyone to understand how culturally significant durags are. Sure, they may look a little silly, but do you all understand just how important they are? I haven’t finished reading this most recent book yet, but the author wrote, “the little brown prince with a stocking cap for a crown.” I can appreciate the desire and determination to get “waves.” Whenever I’ve asked someone to remove their durag, it has only been to see their results and/or to clown them for not using product to support the process. Like, when you really think about it, it’s a beautiful process and people feel accomplished when they reach the point where they can brag about their waves. That is an important part of being a black boy. I’m here it. Now that we know just how important they are, just consider what you’re about to say the next time you tell someone to remove it. I know you all feel like the children aren’t representing appropriately, and policy is policy, but first give props to that kid for their determination. My son isn’t even consistent enough in getting his waves. When a boy gets them, that’s a major event. Should be celebrated - a rite of passage! “Okay, I see you, buuuut...” Just please don’t criminalize something so culturally significant (that’s especially important for those who look like them because some of our elders can be super harsh). 

That’s that. That’s my talk about durags. Feel free to chime in!

Courtesy of Malikah Upchurch

More Black Students for Special Ed? Nah, bro!

The Hechinger Report recently published a column reporting on two recent studies that suggest Black students are under identified as having disabilities and therefore are not receiving the special education services they need.

Leading the charge in this fight to identify more Black students as having a disability and therefore needing special education services is Dr. Paul Morgan, Professor of Education at Penn State and his team of researchers. The Hechinger Report refers to his research presentation in May of this year to the Society for Prevention Research and his latest study to be published in an upcoming issue of Exceptional Children.

If his previous work is any indication, we may have some insight into what the article will read. In 2015, Dr. Morgan and his research team published their analyses of longitudinal data that suggests there is no “evidence that minority representation [in special education] is occurring.” Wow.

In the “Contributions and Implications” section, he and his co-authors suggest that “minority children are underidentified as having disabilities and are less likely to be receiving special education services than otherwise similar White, English-speaking children in the United States.”

First, the construction of race created the social differences and subsequent myriad inequalities experienced by Black folks today, children included. Exhibits A through etc, include, inequitable laws, policies, education funding, economic opportunities, lending practices, etc. These structural inequalities should not nor ever suggest less than, othering, or Black children being de facto disabled.

He elaborates, “Our results indicate that racial- and ethnic-minority children who are otherwise similar to White children are consistently less likely to be identified as disabled whether the specific condition being investigated is learning disabilities, speech or language impairments, intellectual disabilities, health impairments, or emotional disturbances.” In other words, students of color aren’t being identified enough as being disabled, whether it’s a physical or nonphysical disability and therefore aren’t accessing special education services. I could opine ad nauseam about nonphysical disabilities and Black children but I’ll save that for another day/time.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), during the 15-16 school year, Black students, ages 3-21, were 16% of those who were served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). At the beginning of that school year Black students were 15% of the public school population. Now, there are a lot of people who are way smarter that I am, but the raw numbers alone not only seem to debunk the idea of underrepresentation, but in fact a saturation of Black students in special education.

Let’s continue…

In his writings, he suggests a bemoaning on the part of researchers that the system for identification of students for special education is racially bias. Umm, it is (Patton, 1998; Mills, 2003; Blanchett, 2006; Cartledge & Dukes, 2008; Wright et al., 2016).

He writes, “Our findings support policies and practices that result in increased use by practitioners of culturally and linguistically sensitive special education evaluation methods.” Sounds okay, right? The very next sentence, immediately after that period reads, “Use of these methods may be necessary to ensure that special education eligibility procedures do not result in unwarranted overrepresentation of White, English-speaking children.” Yup, you read that correctly!

According to NCES, during the 15-16 school year, White students were 49% of the nation’s public school population and 14% of all students, ages 3-21, served under IDEA.

Overrepresentation? Whatever makes him sleep at night.

Oh it gets much worse, but I can’t. He’s teaching would-be teachers over at Penn State.

Dr. Wanda Blanchett, Dean and Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Education writes disproportionality exists when “students’ representation…exceeds their proportional enrollment in the school’s general population.” No reasoned, non-bigoted person could possibly conclude that White students are overrepresented in special education, based on this definition and the aforementioned data. Dr. Blanchett also pushed back against Morgan and his team’s analyses in a 2016 article she published titled, 'We Won't Be Silenced': Senior Scholars in Special Education Respond to Deficit Derived Claims That ' Minorities [Students of Color] Are Disproportionately Underrepresented in Special Education'.

Dr. Blanchett responded, in part, “…these researchers reported the findings of their study that employed a deficit theoretical and conceptual framework that seek to erase nearly five decades of strong empirical research that illustrates that African American and other students of color are indeed disproportionately overrepresented in special education. Despite their claims, the existing research and empirical literature also demonstrates how issues of race, class culture, language, and perceived disability play out in both general and special education to create conditions that have given birth to and continue to maintain disproportionality (Blanchett, 2013).”

I'll continue and end with Dr. Blanchett’s words back in 2016.

“As senior scholars in the field of special education committed to disrupting educational inequalities…we will not be silenced by one study using hypothetical children to suggest that African American and other students of color are underrepresented in special education when the evidence is clear that this claim is simply false and unfounded when examining real federal reporting data.”