Seeds of Change

When I was in the third grade it was 1980. I lived in Durham, North Carolina, and I had a teacher named Betsy Little (name has been changed). She was black and I was white. 

Ms. Little taught me all kinds of things – too many to name here – but the fact that I am taking the time to write about her 40 years after I sat in her classroom should tell you she had a profound influence on me. I don’t remember all the details, but I do remember she was organized, predictable, kind, allowed me to read as much as I wanted as long as my work was done, let us play outside everyday, and told the substitutes to ask me questions if they needed any clarification. I loved her. I loved her class, and to this day I still think about how classrooms look compared to hers.

Ms. Little was the first teacher who taught me explicitly about racism. I can remember where I was sitting in her room when she told stories of growing up in the segregated south. She had pulled us all close on the carpet and she read to us about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement. She put down the book and told when she was our age, she had to walk past a white school to go to her black school. It took much longer for her to walk there each day, but at that time, it was against the law for her to be in school with white people. I thought about how unfair this sounded and I knew she was telling us the truth because it was Ms. Little and she would never have lied. I knew this story was important because she was taking our social studies time to tell it. I knew I was so thankful those days were over because now we could have black and white people in the same schools, same classrooms, and she was even able to be our teacher.  

That was 1980.

Now, in the year 2020, ERG has had access to thousands of classrooms and hundreds of schools over the years and across the country. We can tell you that racism and oppression is real. Our work has been predominately in Title I schools that include students who are at risk academically and typically live below the poverty line. We can tell you that black children are often sitting in schools with less. We can tell you we have cried on our drives home from schools. We have called each other to talk about the overwhelming issues, the double standards, how we can do more, and the adults who look the other way. The students deserve better. Our black communities deserve better.

We don’t have any fancy data or inspiring rhetoric for you. We are not experts in racism and cannot pretend to be perfect. But what we do have is a promise to continue to work against the systemic oppression that impacts black lives and livelihoods.

ERG was created many years ago to build capacity of teachers. That won’t change. Our work is a calling not only because we believe in helping adults become the best version of themselves, but also because we still believe education is a key building block for communities to thrive. Building students who are empowered and literate in a variety of subjects is important to us. It should be important to all of us. 

We wish ERG had all the answers and could offer a quick fix but we don’t. In no way would we advocate damage to property or people, but we can understand the rage. We can understand the need to be seen and heard. We hope that energy is harnessed into open and productive conversations about how our schools are reflecting society and what changes we can realistically make to provide equal access to quality education. 

We are going to need thinkers, problem solvers, and decision makers in the short and long term. We can no longer look the other way.