Ethical Schools

Dr. Kim Butler, who leads Rutgers’s Africana Studies program, says that while we usually teach history and social studies in discreet, testable units, events are complex and interconnected. Slavery throughout the Americas was central to the development of capitalism. Dr. Butler describes how working class students often can’t choose a liberal arts education because they have to focus on getting jobs.

Overview

00:00-00:50 Intros

00:50-05:23 What Africana Studies is

05:23-07:28 Relationship of slavery and capitalism

07:28-10:47 Why all students should take Africana Studies

10:47-14:21 How high schools could do a better job of teaching about the African diaspora

14:21-18:30 Learning about the Western Hemisphere

18:30-22:22 Importance of learning writing skills

22:22-25:57 Impact of “teaching to the test”

25:57-27:39 “Teaching to the test” v. a freer engagement with new ideas

27:39-34:49 Liberal arts education and workforce development

34:49-36:49 Potential impact of Movement for Black Lives on students

36:49-37:57 Critical importance of educators

37:57-39:45 Outro

Transcription

Click here to see the full transcript of this interview. 

Credits

Soundtrack by Podington Bear

Image from richmond.edu

Stacey Cervellino Thorp and Naima Moffett-Warden teach drama at Manhattan’s famed LaGuardia High School, and Abigail Rivera is a senior in the drama studio. Although all LaGuardia students are extraordinarily talented, their families, neighborhoods, and middle schools have vastly different resources. Students and faculty, led by students of color, have won changes and are demanding more steps to make the school more accessible and the curriculum more culturally responsive. 

Overview

00:00-00:44 Intros

00:44-08:26 LaGuardia admissions standards and how they have changed

08:26-11:23 The sit-in and movement for changing the previous principal

11:23-13:40 Pressures to take AP courses; academics prioritized over arts and the efforts to change that 

13:40-18:22 Teaching students with diverse arts backgrounds

18:22-21:37 Teaching and learning on-line: impacts on process and equity

21:37-24:19 Changing Eurocentric curriculum; Young Idealists

24:19-30:02 Conversations and actions since George Floyd’s death

30:02-34:46 The school’s responses

34:46-35:42 Students’ interest in using careers for social change

35:42-40:50 Making high quality arts education available to many more students on an equitable basis

40:50-42:09 Students’ talking at their middle schools

42:09-47:43 Broadening visions of arts careers, especially for BIPOC students and their families

47:43-49:12 Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcription of this episode. 

Credits

Soundtrack: Podington Bear

Image: laguardiahs.org

We welcome back Lev Moscow of the Beacon School to discuss his approach to teaching political economy, which actually applies to any social science. It’s not primarily about the numbers but about the human choices behind them. How do we determine who gets paid what and who gets to spend 80,000 hours in a lifetime engaged in meaningful work? Also, how our mantra of continuous economic growth will end life as we know it. 

Overview

00:00-00:39 Intros

00:39-02:25 Why teach economics

02:25-08:55 “What Money Can’t Buy”: When are markets corrupted; ethics of markets

08:55-12:34 “Political economy” as distinguished from “economics”

12:34-18:09 Consequences of using increasing growth as metric of healthy economy

18:09-22:43 Ethical questions of teaching from textbooks that don’t correspond to how things work

22:43-26:20 Education for democracy vs education for workforce preparation

26:20-30:36 “80,000 Hours”: Encouraging students to think of maximizing the potential usefulness of their work lives

30:36-32:43 Grades as part of the economic system

32:43-35:37 Supporting young women to become economists

35:37-37:00 Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcription of this episode. 

References

Soundtrack by Podington Bear

Photo by Thomas De Luze 

Daarel Burnette II of Education Week delves into the history of Black communities demanding education and school boards conspiring to deprive them of opportunities and resources. We zoom in on Virginia’s reparations to Black citizens, now in their 60’s, who were excluded from schools when Prince Edward County shut its schools to avoid integration. Mr. Burnette, a “military brat,” theorizes about why children of Black military families do so much better academically than their civilian peers.

Overview

00:00-00:50 Intros

00:50-02:06 Prince Edward County and its significance

02:06-03:31 Virginia’s reparations fund

03:31-07:09 Reactions of reparations recipients

07:09-09:44 Lessons from other state reparations programs

09:44-13:28 Essential elements of a reparations program

13:28-17:24 Overtaxing and underfunding

17:24-19:28 Black Lives Matter movement and educational equity

19:28-22:00 Teachers’ beliefs about genetics and achievement

22:00-24:08 Coleman report and assumptions about Black families

24:08-26:05 History of Black demands for public education; Freedmen’s schools; Rosenwald schools; attacks on Black schools by KKK and White Citizens Councils

26:05-29:00 Students from Black military families outperform civilian students; achievement gap almost eliminated in Department of Defense schools

29:00-35:25 Military base interventions to improve schools serving military families

35:25-38:48 Integration blinds us to what happens afterward; not the end of the story 

38:48-44:30 Freedmen’s schools and Rosenwald schools

44:30-46:31 Why knowledge of history is so essential

46:31-48:00 Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcription of this episode. 

References

Book The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

Credits

Photo by the National Trust for Historic Preservation

Soundtrack by Podington Bear 

We speak with Dr. Emily Penner, who studied the impacts of two programs in which students delved into their respective races, ethnicities, and communities. San Francisco’s was designed for academically-struggling students of a range of ethnicities. Oakland’s was designed for young Black men across academic achievement levels, as part of the district’s  “targeted universalism” approach. The results, in both cases, were dramatic. 

Overview

00:00-00:30 Intros

00:30-01:32 San Francisco ethnic studies curriculum

01:32-03:01 Student selection

03:01-03:41 Students’ ethnicities and classrooms’ composition

03:41-04:19 Student voice and reflection

04:19-05:02 “Critical pedagogy”

05:02-12:40 Effects on student attendance and achievement

12:40-15:11 Teachers exercising their professional judgment

15:11-15:18 Professional development

15:18-18:01 Differentiating between impact of “great teachers” and the curriculum

18:01-19:49 “High fidelity context”

19:49-23:48 Oakland’s African American Male Achievement program

23:48-25:27 Targeted Universalism & working with a range of  groups of students

25:27-28:57 Outcomes and effects

28:57-29:21 Spillover effect on young Black women

29:21-30:24 Avoiding deficient orientation

30:24-31:42 Relationship to My Brother’s Keeper

31:42-35:19 Developments in ethnic studies in California

35:19-37:15 Qualitative resources about Oakland program

37:15-38:45 Outro

Transcript

Click here to see the full transcript of this episode.

Credits

Photo by JD Doyle

Soundtrack by Podington Bear