ENSJ's statement on Ferguson and teaching resources

[Stephanie Schneider]

The members of the Educators Network for Social Justice (ENSJ) express our solidarity with the family of Michael Brown and the Ferguson community as well as our collective outrage at the denial of justice in the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer.  We understand this not as an isolated event but rather a repeated manifestation of the racial profiling and police brutality embedded in a historical context of racial oppression and state violence that shapes the reality for many of our students in Milwaukee  .  As educators, we recognize we hold a unique position in not only helping our students process such tragedies but also to serve as examples as to how we can resist these injustices and organize with community to work towards a better world.  We want our students to become effective problem solvers and critical thinkers.  We want our students to not only  become 'college and career ready' but to become the leaders in the creation of that better world.  As Seattle teacher Jesse Hagopian said, “If education is not dedicated to empowering our youth to solve the problems they face in their communities, in our nation and in our world, then it isn’t really an education at all—it is an indoctrination designed to reproduce oppression.”

Below are listed numerous resources on teaching Ferguson:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IlzlEybc6czEKkKO6988VBk16Zrk3hAWxQJElNW6wpA/edit

http://rethinkingschools.org/.../29_02/RS29_02_watson.pdf

http://lanetwork.facinghistory.org/michael-brown/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kwZl23Q9tgZ23dxSJWS-WpjZhOZ_mzVPtWL8-pWuLt8/mobilebasic

http://www.teachingforchange.org/teaching-about-ferguson?utm_source=FBTW&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=20140822

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/03/the-death-of-michael-brown-teaching-about-ferguson/?_r=2

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christopher-emdin/5-ways-to-teach-about-michael-brown-and-ferguson-in-the-new-school-year_b_5690171.html

http://sociology.about.com/od/Current-Events-in-Sociological-Context/fl/The-Ferguson-Syllabus.htm

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/08/how-to-teach-kids-about-whats-happening-in-ferguson/379049/

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/09/teaching_about_ferguson_do_s_and_don_ts.html