I think it`s also important for white children to learn some of the many ways communities of color have cared for each other in the face of trauma. Too often, white children think that what is typical in their communities is either the only way to solve problems or superior to other means. This teaches them patterns of racism and control that whites must unlearn. When children can experience transformative LES, they can understand how systems disadvantage or favor them because of their race, gender, sexual orientation and disability. They can develop strategies to deal with the effects of oppression in their own lives and realize that this oppression is not their fault. Self-awareness: Discovering and examining our biases – explicit and implicit – our mental models and the values that shaped them, our positions of power and privilege or lack thereof. For children of color, the anti-racist SEL can provide models for naming when a classmate hurt them and for inspiring that classmate to change. (This, of course, assumes that adults provide a safe anti-racist space that meets the needs of students of color.) It is important that if we keep the promise of SEL, we will be able to do so through an anti-racist lens and with justice in mind. Otherwise, SEL becomes another thing we do WITH students rather than WITH our students – building relationships, engaging in the community, and practicing essential skills together. This article by Cierra Kaler-Jones warns against SEL`s use of another form of policing. What is sometimes missing from conversations is that these two areas of learning go hand in hand.
Social-emotional learning that ignores the effects of racism (and other forms of prejudice) perpetuates oppression. Anti-racist education that focuses solely on conveying information about race without addressing how racism constantly manifests itself in our minds and bodies is ineffective. Kamilah Drummond-Forrester, MA, CAGS is the Director of Open Circle (equipping elementary schools with evidence-based programs and training to improve school climate and teach essential social and emotional skills) and a facilitator of the national SEED project, both programs of the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW). Kamilah has led colleagues and several school communities in discussions on equality, anti-racism and social justice. Drummond-Forrester was co-founder and director of wellness at a Boston charter school and director of an award-winning educational reintegration program at the Suffolk County House of Correction. It is interdisciplinary at its core and sees social and emotional learning work and justice as inextricably linked. Her professional experiences have fueled her passion for social and emotional learning (SEL), social justice, and education, giving her unique insight into the importance of SEL in the lives of the children and adults who care for her. She is a meditator, dancer, first generation American and mother of 3 children who uses all her lenses to inform her work. Twitter: @OpenCircleOrg Insta: @opencircle_sel Although many educators are physically further away from our students, our vision of their daily lives and the challenges they face has never been clearer.
This year has inspired us to reflect and reform practices that can be harmful – but the changes we are making now must go beyond that. They must be the foundation of a fairer school system in Canada that creates a level playing field for all the children it serves. When teachers and administrators look for ways to make virtual learning look like a “real” school, these dynamics are replicated – often arbitrarily, ultimately harmfully, like some districts` Zoom policies that now introduce restrictive dress codes into student rooms. Coding behavioral management as “order” or “structure” is nothing new in this country. We see it in national demands for “law and order” and closer to home when it comes to children of color and neurodiverse children. When we say, “Stop crying. Back in line. We don`t do that” – what do we really say to children? Be respectable.
Record. Reshape yourself to fit into this institution, because we will not redesign it to fit you and your needs. Communities for Just Schools writes about the need to review the way social-emotional skills are spoken and taught in schools. This article explores some programs that teach social-emotional learning skills in a way that tells children to conform to certain ideals and not be the most authentic themselves. The “no excuses” educational model that often emerges from this approach is based on order for order`s sake and, combined with institutional racism, has engendered a culture in which children can be sentenced to juvenile detention if they do not do their homework. This model offers our children two options: to comply or not to conform, and the cost of non-compliance is that you simply cannot exist in this space. Weaver writes, “We can`t tell black children to take 10 deep breaths when people who look like them die because they can`t breathe. There is no courage that can prepare a black girl to live in a world where she can be shot eight times while sleeping in bed, and months later no arrests are made.
Especially in schools that serve low-income children and children of color, where we have spent much of our career, policing can take the form of behavioral student management techniques disguised as social-emotional learning.