What is Rigor in Education: A Guide to High Expectations

We constantly throughout the term “high expectations” here at Re-Imagine education… “The lifeblood of any good classroom, high expectations are essential” (posted 6/21); “Educators and researchers ... have devoted their lives to defining what works - like holding high expectations for all students” (posted 9/26); “High expectations and high support are the ingredients necessary to build the skills and humanity necessary to combat the systemic violence lodged in America’s core” (Posted 2/7); But, what do high expectations actually look like? To answer this, we find it is helpful to think about expectations in different, though overlapping, buckets: Academic and Cultural…

White Mediocrity: Where Do You Set the Bar?

If you have worked in education for any amount of time you are familiar with the terms “achievement gap” or, if you work in a more conscious organization, the “opportunity gap”, as well as the school-to-prison pipeline. In fact, I would bet that most people, whether they work in education or not, are familiar with these terms. They are real things, with real life consequences. Young people across the country go to schools where they are not expected to produce anything resembling the production of knowledge and are instead being supervised until they age out, drop out or are pushed out of public education. These cycles persist because we fail to hold students to high expectations in schools with the biggest “opportunity gaps.”…

Truth TellingIan McLAughlinFebruary 7, 2019white mediocrity, High Expectations, Teaching

White Guilt, Paralysis, Amnesia & Fragility in Action: An Analysis of Louis CK, Gervais & Seinfeld

We recently released a blog piece titled “5 Social Justice Terms to Help Name and Deconstruct White Supremacy” meant to help facilitate the interruption of whiteness by those of us interested in seeing the dismantling of white supremacy. Shortly after we released that piece the clip of Chris Rock, Louis CK, Ricky Gervais, and Jerry Seinfeld in conversation and Louis CK using the N word went viral. We thought it may be helpful to analyze the clip using the 5 terms as a way to highlight examples in real life of these phenomenon taking place…

Truth TellingIan McLAughlinJanuary 8, 2019louis CK, Ricky Gervais, Senfield, White Guilt, White Fragility, White Paralysis, White AmnesiaComment

5 Social Justice Terms to Help Name and Deconstruct White Supremacy

Racism, the erasure of Native People, and anti-Blackness was all created to uphold White Supremacy: which encompasses the systems and institutions that benefit people considered white. White Supremacy has reigned in America for the past 400 years; dating back to the invention of the term in Anti-Miscegenation laws written by white men during the 1600’s. From James Baldwin to Rosa Clemente, prominent activities of color have noted time and again that deconstructing White Supremacy is the burden of white people - as we created it. However, one of the biggest issues with deconstructing whiteness is the idea that it hides itself in plain sight - especially to white people. Below are 5 terms related to whiteness that can help to sharpen our lens so we can see and name whiteness in efforts to break it down…

White Paralysis: How Racial Stress and Cognitive Dissonance can lead to Inaction

Consider the following scenario: Kathy manages a team of ten, she is white, nine of her teammates are white and one is black. Several teammates, including her black colleague, are often late to work. She addresses the attendance issue with her white colleagues but never addresses it with her black colleague despite thinking she should. Now, let's consider Mr. Joe a white male English teacher at a diverse high school. As a high school teacher he frequently redirects students in class when they are off task. Reflecting on his practice, he admits that he is quicker to redirect his white students when they are off task allowing his students of color to remain unengaged in class learning.

What do both of these scenarios have in common besides the soft bigotry of low expectations… Privilege…

Playing the "White Card": Can Whiteness Trump the Midterm Election and the Constitution?

The country woke up yesterday morning to the news that Donald Trump plans on eliminating birthright citizenship via an Executive Order. This is yet another blatant leveraging of whiteness to energize Trump’s white working class base. The violence inherent in its worldview means nothing to Trump or those that work with him. This move plainly illustrates that the elevation of white supremacy is fundamental, and a priority. It exposes the lie that the Constitution or any aspirational principles enshrined within it, or any other founding document’s rhetoric, are anything other than distractions for the masses who need something to believe in…

The Politics of Teaching

Very few professions have to defend their existence the way teachers do. There seems to be an insatiable need to critique teachers and “fix” education via “fixing” teachers. Often what this looks like is formulas and best practices compiled in a rubric meant to facilitate teacher accountability and increase effectiveness. Teachers pushback with some iteration of “teaching is an art not a science.” After more than a decade in the classroom…

The Power of Whiteness

The day after Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States millions of Americans took to the streets. The Women’s March was reported to be the largest single-day protest in American history. For a moment, one could be forgiven for feeling a tinge of optimism and hope amid the tragedy of the election. As the protests enfolded there was one image that reminded the world of the reality, present even among the pink hats of the Women’s March - that of a Black woman holding a sign that stated a simple fact: white women voted for Trump. The picture enraged white people across the nation as whiteness did what it always does: mystifies truth and obfuscates reality…

Truth TellingIan McLAughlinOctober 8, 2018kavanaugh, collins, muchin, trump, metoo, Womans March

If It Ain't Broke, Why Fix It? Education in America

Any educator working towards social justice, might have thought or been asked: “If we know what works in education, what’s getting in the way of using that understanding to fix our clearly broken educational system?” And sure, we know a lot of what works, educators and researchers like John Hattie have devoted their lives to defining what works - like holding high expectations for all students, building strong relationships with students, giving meaningful feedback, using effective teacher coaching strategies, et cetera, et cetera…

Truth TellingIan McLAughlinSeptember 26, 2018Comment

Taking a Knee: The NFL & Racism

Despite not playing in the NFL for over a year, Colin Kaepernick is dominating NFL discussions. The former Pro Bowler and Super Bowl quarterback who decided to silently, and peacefully, protest police brutality by sitting for, and then taking a knee during, the national anthem. When asked about the motivations for his protest Kaepernick was very clear, saying: "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color…

Truth Telling, NFLIan McLAughlinSeptember 19, 2018NFL, Kaepernick, Taking a Knee, RacismComment