“There’s no such thing as neutral education. Education either functions as an instrument to bring about conformity or freedom.” - Paulo Freire  

 "As a classroom community, our capacity to generate excitement is deeply affected by our interest in one another, in hearing one another’s voices, in recognizing one another’s presence." - Bell Hooks 

Good morning! If you missed the Day 3 Challenge email yesterday, click here.

Every day students, families, and educators are working hard to co-create learning experiences that center, value, and nurture all students as whole humans. They work to celebrate the rich histories, presents, and futures of their communities. To be effective, they must integrate culturally sustaining pedagogy, restorative practices, socio-emotional learning, and anti-bias anti-racism, while growing students’ abilities to understand our world as it is and take action to create a more equitable society for all. 

Yet there has been tremendous backlash to this approach. Critics have lumped all attempts to pursue broader cultural understanding under Critical Race Theory and falsely characterized this as “revisionist history” that harms and villainizes white students. 

Today’s challenge is chock full of resources for you to learn more about the work of countless students, families, and educators working hard to create the learning communities that all of our young people deserve.