Teaching is a service. It is a lifestyle. And you have to understand, before you start to think about the cultural other, kids, families, etc. White teachers have to do their own homework. Pull apart the curriculum and what you’re teaching and how you are teaching it.

Ask yourself: “Does this reflect who you serve? What speaks to your students?”

For white teachers who engage in work that intersects with both Black educators with Black children and in the Black community, it’s important to do your own homework…

Who are you? How do you feel about issues around race?

And then in this context, we can begin to unpack curriculum to understand whether it’s culturally responsive? Are we using a culturally sustaining pedagogy?

The point of the matter is, if we’re thinking about it through that lens, we’re able to reconnect Black children with their history, and I think that’s important.