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Teaching About Ferguson, Eric Garner, and Beyond

from WKCD| DECEMBER 15, 2014

 

Photo credits: (L) nj.com; (R): chicagotribune.com

 

Over the past several days I’ve been reading over some of the teaching resources and ideas that have been published since the murder of Michael Brown and the militaristic police response to protestors in the weeks that followed. Rethinking Schools and The Morningside Center offer excellent curriculum ideas. My friend and principal Chris Lehmann has a thoughtful post on this and I was happy to see Nicholas Kristof’s recent column about race in the US.

The reality of this country is that, for many, stories similar to what happened to Michael Brown are not uncommon. Many of my students witness violence in their neighborhoods on a regular basis. Many of my students have had or know others who have had negative experiences with law enforcement. Many have had experiences that lead them to feel that their people do not have a fair and equal place at the table.

It is the responsibility of teachers to design curricula that help students critically read and make sense of tragic, horrifying events in the public consciousness. It is also the responsibility of teachers to ask big questions which lead to inquiry and the development of larger analyses and connections.

We need to teach about race, violence, and oppression because of Ferguson. But these issues should already be an integral part of humanities classrooms. Classrooms need to be places where injustice is regularly acknowledged and examined. Space needs to be created for students to share stories and experiences in order to learn from each other and to understand their own realities more deeply.

The role of educators is to help students more fully understand themselves, their society, and their world. Our classrooms need to be places where justice is pursued, silenced voices are heard, and visions of transformation and change are nurtured.

Joshua Block, Humanities Teacher, Science Leadership Academy, Philadelphia |blogpost, 12.13.14, mrjblock.com/

WKCD couldn't agree more with high school teacher Joshua Block. In addition to the links included in his post, there's a growing collection of resources and discussion starters for helping students understand these urgent issues and take restorative action that we note below.

 

Teaching About Ferguson: Race and Racism in the United States | Teaching Tolerance, 12.9.14

The deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York City and Tamir Rice in Cleveland—along with the grand jury decisions in the earlier two cases—have caused waves of nationwide protest and appeals for stronger protections against police brutality. These events have also caused educators to seek resources on how to address these subjects in the classroom. These Teaching Tolerance resources can help spur much-needed discussion around implicit bias and systemic racism, but they can also empower your students to enact the changes that will create a more just society.

The Death of Michael Brown: Teaching About Ferguson | The New York Times Learning Network, updated 12.8.14

On Nov. 24, a St. Louis County grand jury announced that it had brought no criminal charges against Darren Wilson for the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. Thousands took to the streets in cities across the country—from Los Angeles to Atlanta to New York—to protest the decision. In an essay in the Sunday Review on Nov. 30, Michael Eric Dyson asked, “Where Do We Go After Ferguson?” He reflects on the fact that black and white people “rarely see race in the same way,” and notes: "The instrument through which one perceives race—one’s culture, one’s experiences, one’s fears and fantasies—alters in crucial ways what it measures." Here, the Times' Learning Network updates some of the resources in the Ferguson lesson plan for addressing this new chapter in race relations and policing.

Useful Resources For Teaching About Eric Garner's Death | Larry Ferlazzo edublogs.org, 12//3/14

For the past two months, education blogger has offered resources that teachers teachers might find useful when discussing the Ferguson tragedy, racial profiling and racism, violence and policing. In this post who offeres resources for classroom discussions about Eric Garner's death and the decision to not indict the police officer who used an illegal choke hold on him—along with links to the Ferguson resources.

Helping kids understand their rights when they’re stopped by the police | PBS NewsHour, 12.5.14

The recent decision of two grand juries not to indict officers in the deaths of Eric Garner or Michael Brown have been addressed in hundreds of classrooms throughout the country. Amber Joseph, a New York City middle school teacher, discusses how schools can help students channel their reactions into action.

Challenging Stereotypes: Michael Brown and #IfTheyGunnedMeDown | Morningside Center, 8.25.14

Students explore the mainstream media's portrayal of Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager, by a police officer in Ferguson, MO, and the conversation it has touched off about racial stereotyping.

After Eric Garner: One School’s Courageous Conversation | blog post on facinghistory.org, 12.10.14

"As I prepared to write this post, I had to confront the most difficult, yet most important, person that I would be in conversation with: myself. I am an African American male with a 21-year-old son. I have always prided myself on staying “above the fray” in conversations about race. I try to find a place of mutual understanding, to give others the benefit of the doubt, and to attempt to see an experience from the other’s perspective. As a Facing History and Ourselves staff member for the past 13 years, and its Associate Program Director for Urban Education for the past four, I regularly facilitate conversations of this nature with students, educators, parents, and community leaders around the world. . . ."

Commentaries by NYTimes columnist Charles Blow

NY Times columnist Charles Blow has written a series of pieces, since Ferguson, that are consistently thoughtful and provocativefuel for deep classroom discussions.

  • This Is Your Moment For young people, it’s a time of civic awakening, a realization that equality must be won — by every generation — because it will never be freely granted | December 10, 2014
  • A New Age of Activism The energy pouring into the streets is diffuse and organic, but powerful | December 7, 2014
  • The Perfect-Victim Pitfall Following the non-indictments in Ferguson and Staten Island, don’t fall for some counternarrative that doesn’t apply. Change is what we need, badly | December 3, 2014
  • Crime and Punishment How racial bias distorts the way we talk about justic | November 30, 2014
  • Fury After Ferguson This is about whether black boys and men, as well as the people who love them, must fear both the criminal and the cop | November 26, 2014

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