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" ... They recorded TikTok-style Shakespeare monologues and wrote powerful essays. They logged into Zoom and mostly kept their cameras off, but just when I thought a student was sleeping, that person would put a comment in the Zoom chat. Occasionally, though, a student would be sleeping. And there were certainly bad days and weeks and students who struggled with remote learning. But I’m proud of the work my students managed to do in unbelievably challenging circumstances.
That’s another thing many people learned this year: Teachers do far more than deliver lessons. We care for our students.
Instead of celebrating their perseverance, however, what students and teachers got for much of the year was a steady stream of negative feedback. No matter how hard we worked, we were told that this was a “lost year,” and that remote learning was an unmitigated disaster. Imagine how students must have felt hearing countless voices — those of journalists and education researchers and school district leaders — informing them that, no matter how much learning they did, they were actually experiencing something called “learning loss.”
My ninth graders heard those voices. They came to class asking about them, nervous that they were falling behind, scared that the pandemic had created yet another way for them to fail.
The student who emailed me the cry for help was most upset because (in their account) their father had said they were “lazy” for “not trying hard enough” in school. Before judging this father, consider the anxiety that parents were encouraged to feel about their children’s schooling all year long. Consider that in the midst of a pandemic, rather than taking measures to alleviate that anxiety, the federal government denied states the right to waive standardized testing requirements, effectively imposing high-stakes tests upon millions of traumatized children. If my student’s father gave them a hard time about their grades, he’s certainly not the only one responsible for the pain his child was feeling.
Here in New York, we made it through the semester, and the depression I struggled through this past year seems to be receding. Thankfully, the student who emailed me back in February ended up being OK. Their parents were contacted quickly, and it seemed that, in the end, the student just needed to be heard. They needed to know that someone cared.
That’s another thing many people learned this year: Teachers do far more than deliver lessons. We care for our students. Early in the pandemic, there seemed to be some recognition of this, as “social-emotional learning” went from being teacher-speak to a buzzword one might hear on the network news.
Unfortunately, the fact that students need more from school than academic exercises is a lesson that policymakers seem determined to ignore. After a year of loss and trauma, school districts around the country are reportedly planning to welcome students back next fall with a battery of standardized diagnostic tests. Even if these tests are meant to help teachers assess what kind of academic support our students need in the coming year, I worry that state-administered exams with Scantron sheets and No. 2 pencils will generate the sort of stress and anxiety that students typically associate with high-stakes testing. This is the last thing students need.
Like most teachers, I start each school year by giving my students diagnostic assignments. For their writing assignment, I often ask the students to compose a letter that answers some questions about themselves. Instead of shipping these letters out to the department of education and waiting to hear how the students scored on a scale of 1 to 100, however, I read the letters immediately and learn about who my students are, both as writers and as people. After a year of depression, students don’t need more standardized tests. They need meaningful learning experiences designed by teachers who know them. Let’s give them what they need."
Will Johnson is a high school teacher in New York City and a ranking member of MORE (the Movement of Rank-and-File Educators).
—Enough of the Secret Bully
"Dear Enough,
The first thing I think you should do is have a heart-to-heart with your daughter: Does she want to continue this friendship with firm boundaries, or does she want to end it? Does she value the relationship despite its challenges, or is this friend causing more misery than happiness?
If she would like to remain friends with this girl, she is going to need help learning how to set boundaries. You can start by modeling ways she might respond to her friend’s controlling behavior. For example: “No, I did not break your trust; I can make my own choices.” Together, you can come up with a few similar phrases that help her assert herself. I suggest that you role-play situations where she would find these phrases useful so she can practice. She might also benefit from reading books about friendship with you; one of my favorite blogs, A Mighty Girl, has a wealth of resources on books about friendship.
However, if she wants to end the relationship, then she may need your assurance that it’s OK to end a toxic friendship, especially if it’s making her feel bullied rather than connected. Teach her how to say “no” when invited over to this girl’s house, and how to explain that she doesn’t like being controlled.
Finally, I realize that it’s awkward to have difficult conversations with parents you don’t know very well, but if my daughter’s friend considered her a bully, I would want someone to tell me. Their daughter would likely benefit from her parents helping her learn how to maintain friendships without trying to control others.
Best of luck to you—and your daughter.
"I owe a lot to Gary Mahoney.
He was the campus conservative back in the middle ’70s, when I was a student at the University of Southern California and we went at it hammer and tongs a few times on the opinion pages of the Daily Trojan. I no longer recall the details of our disagreements. What I do remember is realizing that he was good and that I had to up my game — tighten my reasoning, sharpen my logic — if I hoped to stay in the ring with him.
That’s a lesson students will be denied if Republicans like Ron DeSantis get their way. Last week, Florida’s governor signed a bill requiring the state’s public colleges and universities to survey students and faculty on their ideological beliefs. The aim, he claims, is to prevent schools from “indoctrinating” students. DeSantis has hinted that those failing to show “intellectual diversity” will face budget cuts.
Meaning, it aims to protect kids raised on mom and dad’s steady diet of Fox “News” and Breitbart from the shock of having any ideas they’ve thereby imbibed challenged in the outside world. Which is hypocritical on its face. After all, conservatives once — not unreasonably — chided liberals for trying to bubble-wrap students with trigger warnings and safe spaces. Now they use force of law to do the very same thing.
It should go without saying that it’s none of the state’s business what you or I think. It should be likewise obvious that this law will stifle debate and muzzle instructors and is thus antithetical to the mission of our colleges and universities.
There is no mystery why conservatives find education dangerous. A 2015 Pew Research Center study quantified that the better educated one is, the more likely one is to hold liberal beliefs. But I’d argue, contrary to what conservatives seem to feel, that’s not because of bullying professors shouting left-wing dogma. Rather, it’s because once you learn how to think, you’re less susceptible to thin reasoning and easy answers. And increasingly, that’s all conservatism’s got.
That may not have been true — or at least, may have been less true — decades ago. But back then, the right had some intellectual underpinning, had yet to devolve into the twitching id of perpetual resentment now on daily display. I mean, is anyone overawed by the profundity of Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene? How about Louie Gohmert? Or even Ron DeSantis?
An opinion one can’t defend — using actual facts and recognizable reason — is an opinion not worth having. At some level, conservatives must know they fail that standard, so they work to undermine it instead, to make the world safe for ignorance.
Teach your children well, the songwriter said. But this is the opposite of that.
I like to think Gary Mahoney would agree."
Dear Philip,
As educators, you’re often on the frontlines of confronting and building resilience against harmful extremist ideas targeted to young people. Recognizing and responding to the signs of youth radicalization can be challenging, but new resources from our colleagues at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project can help.
SPLC has partnered again with the Polarization and Extremism Research Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University to provide new resources for educators, parents, caregivers and other adults who work with young people. This new supplement for educators offers classroom strategies for recognizing and preventing radicalization, intervening to support vulnerable students and responding when incidents occur.
The supplement for educators is just one of the expanded resources complementing A Parents & Caregivers Guide to Online Radicalization. In this guide, educators, parents, caregivers, coaches, counselors and others can find information about warning signs of radicalization, language and ideologies to be aware of and guidance on best practices when approaching such topics.
We hope you find these critical resources helpful and that you’ll share them with other adults working alongside youth as well.
Thanks for all you do for students.
Jalaya Liles Dunn
Director, Learning for Justice
