"We Are Sick of Reforming, We Need to Start Over"

    

    This conversation surrounding abolitionist teaching was facilitated by Brian Jones and included three experts on the topic-Bettina Love, Gholdy Muhammad and Dena Simmons who shared their personal connections to the topic and their professional opinions and ideas. These women were able to share such in depth and constructive ideas, because as they stated and proved, black women, and even more so black queer women, have suffered every oppression and therefore have the laurels and credentials to speak about how to educate without it. 

                                            

    When the speakers moved onto explicitly explain the radical idea of abolishing the school system and to create a new one from the ground up, I have to admit my knee jerk reaction to this was nerves and apprehension, as the idea of getting rid of the system which employs me and is responsible for educating 57 million children each day seems daunting. However as Bettina Love went onto explain, this is coming from a place of white privilege because I have a connection and tie to the systems which have served me. And as Gholdy Muhammad goes onto say, to those who suggest reform and revision-this has already been tried through programs like Response to Intervention, No Child Left Behind and differentiation, each time putting a fresh coat of paint and a bow on the practices and systems that were ultimately still serving and disadvantaging the same students as before. And therefore, since these reforms have proven to be futile, it is only fair and reasonable to insist that now the change needs to be made in a more transformative, radical and abolitionist way. As I continued listening to the presentation, another point which strengthens the case of abolition as opposed to reform is just how deep rooted and widespread the issues in the education system as it pertains to educating people of color are. There is no part of the system that is free from racist or white supremacy components from the tracking of students (which when Bettina spoke about this it reminded me of the reading on capitalism by Chipper about production and viewing people as disposable), to hiring practices, interview questions, standardized tests, teacher evaluations, curriculum, tone policing, and tokenizing of staff. And therefore, if there is so much suffering and oppression occurring, even if it is not happening to all, even if it is just happening to one child, Duncan-Andrade tells us we need to have audacious hope, a part of critical hope, whereby if our students are struggling, we will struggle along with them, and share in the burden of their undeserved suffering to manifest hope and aptitude for collective healing. 

    What makes this discussion so comprehensive is that the speakers begin by identifying the problems which exist, then explicitly name them and name a movement and "way of life" as Bettina Love coins abolitionist teaching to fix it, and then furthermore name specific ways and avenues which teachers can go about beginning this work-this is something often times I find many speakers forget to do or lose time for; after listing and describing the problem, offering concrete solutions. 

    Some of these ways which stuck out to me were:

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  Dena Simmons stated that we need to "view every curriculum through the lens of abolitionist, including social emotional curriculum, because otherwise it just becomes white supremacy with a hug" and therefore every curriculum and system put in place needs to be viewed through an anti-racist and racial justice lens
• Dena Simmons also points out that in order to fully achieve anti-racist and racially just social emotional learning, this practice needs to include racial trauma informed teachers and the creation of space to discuss and heal this trauma
• Bettina Love points out that we need to eliminate police in schools and replace them with counselors, therapists and healers and create and use curriculum that doesn't focus on standards but on the community
• Gholdy Muhammad discusses in deep detail the research she has done about education in the 19th century and how it was successful because instead of just focusing on skill building as the primary and singular pillar of education there were instead four critical component-criticality, identity, skills and intellectualism

    While all the discussion made throughout the presentation was deep, thoughtful, motivating and inspiring, perhaps the most poignant point for me was made by Bettina Love at the end, when referencing how the pandemic can and should influence abolitionist teaching. She highlighted that by "miracle" and through the wood work, once the pandemic hit, suddenly all the harsh and steadfast practices in the system of education suddenly no longer needed to be upheld-standardized tests, students can take home lap tops, freedom for teachers to use their own pedagogy, and free internet. And now that we are making it through the other side of the pandemic, and have seen what professional courtesy for teachers and access to technology can do for students, this is the time where change can truly be made to prevent those archaic and discriminatory systems to be allowed to stand in place again. At the end the speakers cite some fantastic resources teachers and community members alike can begin using to become a part of the movement, some of which are linked below:

Black Lives Matter At School-13 guiding principles

Abolitionist Teaching Network

Critical Resistance-Abolitionist Tools

Education Liberation-Vision

Dream Defenders

For a final summary on this moving conversation, a sketch note created and shared on Twitter by Claribel Gonzalez.