Most recent public comments by Anna Marston https://nowcomment.com/users/105725 https://nowcomment.com/documents/271558?scroll_to=2447352 https://nowcomment.com/documents/271558?scroll_to=2447352 Although to many it might seem obvious that we must preach equity and color-consciousness to students, there is a large population of people who disagree. In fact, a website called whataretheylearning.com was designed to track school districts and what students are being taught about critical race theory, Black Lives Matter, and equity. The creator of this website claims that these ideas are "cynical, pessimistic, and divisive that almost no one outside a group of professional activists actually believes," ("What Are They Learning?", 2021). Furthermore, many people believe that children are too young, or there is no space in the curriculum, or it is not the educator's place to discuss race (USC Rossier School of Education, 2021). The purpose of this letter is to also attempt to debunk some of those beliefs, as there is much evidence that a color-conscious approach to race is beneficial to students and teachers. Farago, Davidson, & Byrd (2019) report--in their book chapter of the Handbook of Children and Prejudice--report some of the benefits of a color-conscious education. Prejudice reduction, reduction in racial disparities in classroom discipline by teachers, and the eradicatation of barriers for minority students in education are all benefits to color-conscious education (Farago et al. 2019). In a 2007 study, children aged 6-11 assigned to receive a history lesson that covered slavery in-depth had less biased attitudes than children in the control condition (Hughes et al., 2007). Evidence shows that color-conscious approaches can help reduce bias and prejudice from a young age. https://whataretheylearning.com/about/ https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12228-7_7 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01096.x https://rossieronline.usc.edu/youth-and-racism/racism-in-the-classroom Mon, 26 Apr 2021 08:32:15 -0700 https://nowcomment.com/documents/271558?scroll_to=2447350 https://nowcomment.com/documents/271558?scroll_to=2447350 In addition to the home, school is where most children and adolescents spend most of their time, making school an essential location for socialization with other children and adults. For children, the school serves as a place to support the whole child--where they often develop much of their opinions and relationships at school (Flook, 2019). Because of the extensive time spent in school, this is why a color-conscious approach to race is so crucial; in addition, parents often neglect to speak about race and racism with their children. Brigitte Vittrup (2018) found that only 30% of white mothers with children ages 4-7 years old (N=107) took a color-conscious approach when talking about race with their children. The remaining 70% of these white mothers took a color-blind approach to discuss race or did not discuss race with their children at all. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/four_ways_schools_can_support_the_whole_child#:~:text=Beyond%20just%20teaching%20academics%2C%20schools,%2C%20and%20overall%20well%2Dbeing.&text=Such%20a%20narrow%20focus%20gives,%2C%20and%20overall%20well%2Dbeing. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X16676858 Mon, 26 Apr 2021 08:31:31 -0700 https://nowcomment.com/documents/271558?scroll_to=2447348 https://nowcomment.com/documents/271558?scroll_to=2447348 In this letter, we are challenging the current educational curriculum requirements for United States history courses in Massachusetts, particularly Black history and the lasting effects of slavery. Although Massachusetts still has work to do in teaching students about slavery, the state education system has performed much better than other states at discussing slavery at all. In Massachusetts, it is required of teachers to discuss slavery at all; in fact, the history and social studies framework mentions the keyword "slavery" 104 times (Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2018). In contrast, Louisiana mentions "slavery" four times and Idaho does two times. Very few states at all cover the enslavement of Indigenous people, despite it being a widespread issue throughout the U.S. during most of the 19th Century (Heim, 2019). Quiz to test your knowledge on the history slavery in the U.S.: https://www.washingtonpost.com/test-your-knowledge-on-the-history-of-us-slavery/96b42b72-6540-45d1-af88-f297c81afa3c_quiz.html?itid=lk_readmore_manual_48 https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/08/28/what-do-students-learn-about-slavery-it-depends-where-they-live/ https://www.splcenter.org/20180131/teaching-hard-history https://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/hss/2018-12.pdf Tue, 27 Apr 2021 10:49:49 -0700 https://nowcomment.com/documents/271558?scroll_to=2447347 https://nowcomment.com/documents/271558?scroll_to=2447347 The primary goal of this letter is to inform and educate, rather than accuse and shame. We felt that this statement of appreciation would add to the character and goodwill of this letter; we truly are grateful for our primary and secondary education experiences. It was our intent to express this gratitude while also using it to fuel our constructive criticism of the Massachusetts public school system. We chose to write this letter and chose Massachusetts specifically because as natives of the state and products of the school system, we care about the welfare and education of our successors at our high schools. To create a culture of anti-racism and to address systemic racism in Massachusetts and beyond, starting within the education system and at a young age is, ideally, a start at achieving equity. Children as young as three months old prefer own-race faces (Kelly et al., 2005). Furthermore, adults continue to delay conversations on race with children because they underestimate the psychological processing of race among children (Wilton & Apfelbaum, 2020). While we must do so in age-appropriate ways, it is important that educators and parents contribute to a color-conscious dialogue to promote anti-prejudice and anti-bias efforts. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xge0000851 doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2005.0434a.x Mon, 26 Apr 2021 08:30:38 -0700 https://nowcomment.com/documents/271558?scroll_to=2447345 https://nowcomment.com/documents/271558?scroll_to=2447345 Child specialists and psychologists have found that children endorse stereotypes and exhibit prejudice by the time they enter formal schooling (Bigler & Wright, 2014). Within the psychology community remains debate over the pros and cons of teaching children about prejudice, discrimination, and intergroup relations. Bigler & Wright (2014), in a thorough literature search, found that negative "risks" could include harmful feelings or fear, vulnerability to "stereotype threat," out-group mistrust, or an even strengthened reinforcement of stereotypes among children. In contrast, the benefits of teaching children about intergroup biases include them being able to explain social group differences to peers, rejection of discrimination, and a protection of self-esteem among children in historically marginalized groups. Child developmentalists are still figuring out the most effective, child-appropriate ways to teach kids in school about discrimination and prejudice, as there are certainly debates on this topic. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12057 Mon, 26 Apr 2021 08:30:10 -0700 https://nowcomment.com/documents/271558?scroll_to=2447341 https://nowcomment.com/documents/271558?scroll_to=2447341 One of the challenges that we encountered in crafting this letter was consolidating it into one short mode of communication. As we've seen, in this course, we have spent an entire semester on the concepts of prejudice, bias, and discrimination. Furthermore, anti-racism is not a piece of our educational journeys that can end. We must continue to learn and dismantle systems of oppression. As a result, it was very hard to write one short letter on this topic, as there is so much psychological theory and data on racial socialization. In scientific communication--whether it is an op-ed, a social media infographic, or a letter like this one--one challenge is meeting standards of conciseness and sharpness so that outsiders will read it. An additional challenge to the writing process was ensuring that we maintained a tone of professionalism, while not coming off accusatory. We tried to integrate our personal experiences with psychological theory to create an informative tone, rather than an accusatory one. Mon, 26 Apr 2021 08:29:23 -0700 https://nowcomment.com/documents/271558?scroll_to=2447339 https://nowcomment.com/documents/271558?scroll_to=2447339 We are especially interested in communicating with Commissioner Jeffrey C. Riley, who heads the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Riley is the 24th appointed Commissioner of Education in Massachusetts, responsible for the oversight of all key areas: administration and finance, district support, educational options, instructional support, legal, planning and research, and student assessment. He is held accountable for the education of 404 school districts in Massachusetts and over 1 million students each year (Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2018). We want him, the staff of DESE, and the members of the DESE Board to hear our experiences within the Massachusetts public school system being especially racially color-blind, leaving us in a place in college where we were not prepared to confront race and racism. Evidently, Commissioner Riley and his colleagues care about improving the Massachusetts public school system in general and in making it a more equitable space for racial, ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic minorities. The DESE Board has 13 "advisory councils", including the Racial Imbalance advisory council, designed to address school desegregation in Massachusetts. Clearly, the DESE cares to address racial disparities in education, but we want to push them a bit further at addressing the content that educators provide to their students. The purpose is to make a statement regarding the lack of color-consciousness in our own experiences in public schools in Massachusetts, while equally sharing how appreciative we are of the schools we attended. This letter to Commissioner Riley is not meant to be accusatory; rather, it is meant to be informative and propose a discussion on color-consciousness (Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2021). https://www.doe.mass.edu/commissioner/ https://www.doe.mass.edu/bese/councils/racial.html Mon, 26 Apr 2021 08:28:54 -0700