Dear members of NCTE's Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English,
After receiving the email from the NCTE Executive Committee distancing themselves from your statement, I of course went looking for the statement. And once I read it, I saw that though it took a partisan stance that NCTE Official couldn't sanction, it was a call to talk. Not to remain silent. So on my private blog, no official NCTE connection, I'm accepting the invitation. I agree 100% with the committee that ignoring the current situation is a deadly duck and cover. As English teachers, we encourage our students to step into each other’s shoes; we build bridges through reading and writing and talking. If we can’t discuss this with civility and compassion, who can? I’ve posted the committee’s statement in its original form, and then, by way of starting a respectful dialogue, edited it to remove triggers, acknowledge pluralism, honor multiple identities and keep people in the conversation, instead of shutting it down. The CaRBTE Statement: Statement on Palestinian Genocide from NCTE’s Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English The Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English believes ignoring current global realities hampers students’ ability to learn, process, and comprehend the world in critical ways. Silence does not protect them; it only leads to erasure, pain, and ignorance. As ELA teachers, we have power to elevate and humanize Palestinian narratives for students. This is good for all students in our ELA classrooms. Hopefully, their growth in understanding impacts future policy, as well. Disrupting prevalent knowledge and bias presents an opportunity to engage in critical media literacy. Through investigative methods, problematizing narratives, and asking questions about what we’re hearing in the media, ELA educators can offer students a powerful and critical skill set to combat dehumanization. We, the Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English, stand for Palestinian’s right to self-determination and justice. We stand against genocide. We recognize that until Palestine is free, no one is free. My edits: Statement on the Israel Hamas war from NCTE’s Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English The Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English believes ignoring current global realities hampers students’ ability to learn, process, and comprehend the world in critical ways. Silence does not protect them; it only leads to erasure, pain, and ignorance. As ELA teachers, we have power to elevate and humanize Palestinian and Israeli, Muslim and Jewish narratives for students. This is good for all students in our ELA classrooms and beyond. Disrupting prevalent knowledge and bias presents an opportunity to engage in critical media literacy. Through investigative methods, problematizing narratives, and asking questions about what we’re hearing in the media, ELA educators can offer students a powerful and critical skill set to combat dehumanization. We steadfastly resist Islamophobia and antisemitism. We challenge the conflation of Palestinians with Hamas, and Israelis and non-Israeli diaspora Jews with the Netanyahu government. These misconceptions breed bias and hate. We abhor the ongoing terror, the loss of life, home and family. No nation’s child is less important than another’s. We, the Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English, stand for the right of all human beings to have self-governance, safety and basic necessities. We call for an immediate cessation of the violence, for humanitarian aid, and international support for negotiating a sustainable, humane peace. We recognize that, in the words of Fannie Lou Hamer, nobody’s free until everybody’s free. Resources for teaching: [TK] Reading list for teachers: [ditto]
17 Comments
Photo: Woman walking in front of Picasso's Guernica. From Euronews by Francisco Seco. October 21, 2023 [Confused, heartbroken, lonely. Raw first draft banged out upon awakening. I will never get this one right, nor will I get to listen to and learn from the people I’m connected to, if it sits on my computer.] I had a dream. Literally. Last night. A weird little nightmare of sorts. Or a maybe a gift, because it crystallized some of my thinking, my obsessive thinking, over the past two weeks. I’m protesting in front of the Capital building for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Around me are my fellow humanitarian Jews, and Muslims, allies, people who look like the beautiful mosaic we occasionally are, in this country. The police begin arresting us. Nearby, I see--packed in the crowd with me—an old student, an Arab-American Muslim woman I taught as an 8th grader at least twenty years ago, and who was one of my favorites. I manage to make my way to her and we embrace. We hold each other in warm reunion, and hang on, offering unspoken comfort as horror rips a faraway part of the world, with ripples for both of us.
While we’re hugging, two cops come close and fasten handcuffs and a leg cuff on us—grass green plastic affairs, and there’s only one set of cuffs for the two of us, so we’re united in our arrest. Don’t ask me how this works. It’s dream-magic, where one set of cuffs is enough. Sinophobia and antisemitism entwined in RFK's ridiculous, dangerous rant. Why am I not surprised?7/18/2023 image: Leah Ai Tian, heroine of Fair Square Comics' "The Last Jewish Daughter of Kaifeng" by Fabrice Sapolsky, with Fei Chen, Ho Seng Hui, Will Torres, Exequiel Roel and Walter Pereyra Let’s agree that RFK Jr. is not a well man and perhaps have a bit of compassion for the rich asshole with the tin foil hat and the big soapbox.
|
Eve's BlogI've been blogging since 2010. When I've got writer's block in every other way (frequent), this low stakes riffing to think has been a constant. Over the digital years, I've had a half dozen or so blogs including a travel blog and a reading blog, both on Blogger, and an all-purpose blog on tumblr where I wrote about education, social equity and anything else that sparked me. I also posted some of my published print work on my website. My shit is all over the internet. I'll be using this space for the occasional blog post, now. Archives
November 2023
Categories |