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For the closing general session of AFT TEACH, attendees heard from AFT Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus and the globally recognized filmmaker, human rights advocate and education activist Leslee Udwin, who made the documentary “India’s Daughter” about the gang rape and murder of a young woman in 2012.
Believing that the crime was based in cultural norms and, like Nelson Mandela, that no one is born hating another person because of their skin color, gender, background or religion, Udwin founded Think Equal in 2015. A nonprofit, it promotes social and emotional learning and equality in early education.
DeJesus said she was especially glad to welcome Udwin because at this moment in our country, we can’t help but worry. Educators have been watching in horror as diversity, equity and inclusion programs are scrubbed from educational institutions.
At the AFT, DeJesus said, we believe in safe and welcoming schools for all. How could we not? Public education in America is fantastically diverse.
Given that, she asked, are we supposed to disrespect diversity, enshrine inequality and embrace exclusion? “Are we supposed to bring back the days when girls couldn’t attend school? Women couldn’t vote? Blacks, Latinos and Asians were legally segregated? Jews and Catholics were restricted and faced quotas? And Native Americans were confined to reservations?”
DeJesus introduced Udwin to help members parse these questions.
Social-emotional learning
“Hallowed ground is where educators are gathered,” Udwin declared. “I would cross oceans to be amongst you, and I have.”
The world relies on teachers, she said, who not only teach compassion but diversity, equity and inclusion, the only conditions in which we can end violence.
Udwin called on policymakers to direct education to the whole child and commit to repurposing education with social-emotional learning at its core. Empathy, critical thinking, emotional literacy and other qualities are required. These qualities lay “the very foundation of peace,” she said, and she advocated for these lessons to start young. Early childhood education, she said, is the engine room of progress.
Udwin looks to AFT members as the engines of change. To create Think Equal’s curriculum, she brought in experts on education and neuroscience, human rights and social justice. Their mission was clear: Just as an architect would never think of building a skyscraper without a foundation, so in education we have one narrow opportunity to build prosocial children’s lives: their first five years.
In the trauma-informed Think Equal approach, children are taught at three levels—ages 3-4, 4-5 and 5-6—at least twice a week for 30 minutes per session.
“It’s not rocket science—it’s neuroscience,” Udwin said. The curriculum centers on using narrative picture books to build empathy and parent engagement; its aim is to build “cohesive, peaceful communities,” she added. “We need to commit to serving this with all of our hearts for the sake of ensuring … the very survival of our human family and our home, the Earth.”
Righteous road ahead
To close out this year’s AFT TEACH, DeJesus shared doses of professional advice and her trademark soaring optimism.
Cautioning that the road ahead is not going to be easy, DeJesus assured attendees that it’s going to be righteous. Echoing AFT President Randi Weingarten, she dubbed attendees the creators of America’s future.
She also lauded her two fellow conference closers, Jerelle Hendon and Casie Wise.
A school attendance officer, Hendon is a former science teacher and an AFT member, which he calls a core part of his professional identity. Hendon has worked as an AFT Professional Learning trainer for 13 years. Not surprisingly, he’s also a major user of professional development, which helps him figure out how to help students feel welcome in and hopeful about school.
On behalf of the National Indian Education Association, Casie Wise, the group’s senior program director, expressed gratitude for the AFT’s partnership with NIEA. The former high school teacher honored our union for its defense of public education and love for students and teaching, calling the profession a privilege and a responsibility.
Today, she added, “teaching has become an act of resistance.”
Standing on the land of Native Anacostans, as well as the Piscataway and Pamunkey tribes, Wise acknowledged NIEA for advancing culturally relevant education for Native students to ensure they are surrounded by people who see, value and uplift them.
“Unfortunately, less than half of the U.S. states require teaching standards that acknowledge Native history past 1900,” Wise said. “Curricula that exclude or distort Native stories continue to cause harm.”
But, as Wise said, “education also holds the power to heal.” Ten years ago, a Lakota educator invited Wise to learn about Native nations, and she began to see how teachers can either silence or amplify Native voices.
She left TEACH attendees with this: “Learn the story of the land where you live and you teach. … Teach it with truth, with joy and with the belief that Native students deserve to be seen.” This way, all students will gain a fuller and more honest education, which will strengthen every child’s future.
[Annette Licitra]