I No Longer Want to Be Just A Witness

I have been thinking a lot about the inherent racism that my life is seeped in lately.  Mostly because I do not face racism.  Sexism yes, but racism, no.  Mostly because I see the news and I am dumbfounded, saddened, and outraged.  Mostly because I am a witness to how my students are treated outside of our school and the lives that they have.  I am merely a witness but I don’t want to just witness anymore.  I want to stop being a part of the problem and become part of the solution.   But I don’t know how.

So when I see an infographic like this from The Sentencing Project

Or when I hear a Podcast like this “The Problem We All Live With” from This American Life and I shout at the radio at the injustice of it all, I cannot help but wonder; what can I do?  Or more importantly, what can we do as educators?  What can I do as a white educator who does not live this every single moment of my life?  What will change in our classrooms so that we all become part of the solution rather than a continuation of the problem?  How do we stop racism from flourishing rather than disappearing?

What do we do?  Because we have to do something.  And it has to be more than what we are doing now.

I am a passionate teacher in Oregon, Wisconsin, USA but originally from Denmark,  who has taught 4th, 5th, and 7th grade.  Proud techy geek, and mass consumer of incredible books. Creator of the   Global Read Aloud Project , Co-founder of  EdCamp MadWI , and believer in all children.  The second edition of my first book  “Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students” is available for pre-order now.    Second book “Empowered Schools, Empowered Students – Creating Connected and Invested Learners”  is out now from Corwin Press.  Join our Passionate Learners community on Facebook and follow me on Twitter @PernilleRipp.
Filed under: being me