2020 Educators of Color Celebration

January 27, 2021 JCPSDEP 0 Comments


Activist and educator W. E. B. DuBois said, “Education must not simply teach work—it must teach life.” You are here because you not only teach life, you also breathe life into many students. Thank you for doing what it is you do. I understand that there are many challenges, both personal and professional, that you face daily. I understand that you wake up every day with hopes to make a difference. Even when it seems as if you have not or are not making a difference, there is research to the contrary. Johns Hopkins University just published research that proved that your presence in the classroom and schoolhouse decreases the chances of [black] students dropping out by more than 30 percent. That research, as promising and telling as it is, is nothing new to you. You should know your worth. You know what you bring to this system, and you should know what would happen if we did not have you with our students daily. Even further, you should be proud of the fact that this celebration is unapologetically for you. This celebration is to simply thank you for the curriculum and pedagogy you bring with you. Thank you for the experiential eye and heart through which you evoke validation and hope. We understand that one of the main things that improves students’ outcomes are relationships. To that point, we also understand that relationships are hard to come by and to keep. Yet, many of you do this daily. Many of you are the surrogate mom, dad, and/or guardian for the students you work with. And that is not is in the job description. Nor is it written that you are expected to attend the events, games, family functions of your students; however, you do that as well. Often times, all of this is done without indemnity. You do it because it is also what education is. Teaching is more than just being certified, classified, and working in the schoolhouse. Real teaching happens when what you say, do, and deliver to the student makes the student better. When the student can connect to the lesson, share her or his thoughts and experiences, and have the autonomy to be themselves and seek to understand their current positionality in the world, all the while striving to be a contributive factor in society, you are educating. Thank you for being what you are, as means to show students what they are and can become. John D. Marshall, Ed.D Jefferson County Public Schools Chief Equity Officer

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