Dear Parents and Guardians,
I hope you are well. I am sure by now all of you have heard enough from political leaders and TV pundits about feelings of anger, outrage, or shock regarding Wednesday’s event at the Capitol, so I will refrain from going there in this message. I will, however, say after George Floyd, countless internet postings of “Karens” in action, and our own racist graffiti incidents during the past two years, none of us should be surprised that open expressions of racism and hate can happen at any time. We need no more evidence to show us that no communities are immune to racism, we do not live in a post-racial society, and racism has been and will continue to be deeply woven into the fabric of American society.
I believe what happened on Wednesday at the Capitol means we have to maintain our commitment to our work with SEL (Social Emotional Learning) and PBA (Performance Based Assessment). This is because being antiracist educator means placing a focus on humanity in our teaching practices. Our teachers are putting a lot of effort into shifting away from pushing content and assessing mastery by using less than meaningful methods such as those on standardized tests. Instead, our SEL and PBA efforts means an increase of practice such as:
- Focusing on critical thinking skills and personal reflections.
- Explicitly letting students know what they are thinking and feeling are important.
- Being intentional with the language we are using (e.g., using correct names and pronouns).
If it is not clear before, it is clear now that student success can no longer be determined by how quickly we can get them to Honors and AP courses or how well they score on standardized tests. The recent events are telling us that our job as educators is about how well we can get students to understand how the information and skills we are teaching them are connected to our humanity, what does equity and justice mean, how to tell the difference between facts and disinformation, and how to regulate their emotions when things do not go their way.
Thank you, and I wish you all well.
James Lin
Principal
McCall Middle School
