Lessons in Leadership from a Follower's Perspective

If we are in education for the right reasons, we are in it for student achievement. Student success has many twists and turns, but only one path: through a supportive culture, composed of a dedicated team of teachers that is supported by a great leader. It always comes back to leadership. Without a great leader, the life work of a team is in grave danger.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18

In fact, there is an intimate connection between the life and work quality of followers and the competence and capacity of the leader. You can find great definitions of leadership from books like ‘Good to Great,’ by Jim Collins. There are innovative motivational techniques in Daniel Pink’s ‘Drive,’ and practical take-aways from master works like ‘Leverage Leadership’ by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo and ‘Teach Like a Champion 2.0,’ by my good friend Doug Lemov. What this blog entry has will not be better than those works, but it hopes to give leaders a glimpse into the hearts and minds of us, the followers. Here are three conditions that help us move (y)our work forward:

1. Our school/office is a place where we are always valued and appreciated.

2. Your agenda never outpaces our understanding.

3. Our work’s goals are clear and progressively attainable.

***

Dear School/Office Leader,

We thrive in a place where leaders know more than just our names, birthdays and number of dependents. When a leader can tell us the specific gifts and talents we have to offer and how we can get better at our craft, we know that leader is invested. The office is a place that honors our humanity when it is hard to tell who the favorites are, but easy to see where everyone fits on the team. We feel appreciated and valued when we are brought to the table for decisions that directly impact us; when we are allowed space to substantively disagree without expecting a return serve of condescension and when our ideas can also be the solutions to problems that affect us all. When you just care to know how your leadership makes us feel, we truly get a view into a servant’s heart.

Our worth is best answered with these two questions: do your expectations empower or crush us? Do you truly care either way?

There is one clear way we know your commitment to teamwork – you never forget the power of teaching. The vision for our work, ambitious though it may be, is never out of our conceptual reach because you constantly take the time to make it plain for us. Make it sing for us. Make it lead for us. Make it bleed for us. You make the goals for our work so living, tangible and important by the sheer consistent way you help us see them. And when we cannot see them clearly, you do not make them more complex. You simply give us new lenses and patiently wait for us to see it as you see it. As a seasoned leader, however, you do understand that there are things related to student achievement that cannot wait and so those priorities are addressed. However, you care enough for us and for the meaning we get from being a part of something greater, to go as fast you can or as slow as you need to so that we arrive at the finish line together. We never confuse your agenda with our own, because you lead in such a way that it is clear that you believe your vision cannot be accomplished without ours.

We work best when leaders are absolutely clear and deathly serious about student and teacher transformation. We will run through walls for leaders who model the mental sacrifice necessary to create the infrastructure for teacher growth and student progress; and who take the time to collaborate with us on ways we can maximize the life chances of every student. And as we pass each sign on the highway of progress, you keep raising the bar and providing the ladder to reach it. You realize that teaching is not easy and that there are a multitude of variables and personalities that affect each and every learning experience. We need so much from you. And in return we offer you so much of us. 

Thank you for leading. Thank you for listening.

Sincerely,

Your teachers/followers

P.S. I need a leader too. I need a leader who looks like me. If I can’t get that, I’ll settle for a leader that fights for me. A leader that won’t let me perish because my parents don’t make it to school.  A leader who’ll consider the consequences of my suspension for violations that endanger no one. A leader who will read me the riot act, and in the next breath read me my future. A leader that knows that I have only one chance to get it right – or my life won’t graduate. I need a leader who loves me, without condition.

Sincerely,

Your ‘At-Risk’ Black boy

***

Earlier, I stated that it always comes back to leadership and it does. The coda to that statement, however, is that every great leader knows that it always comes back to the people. The followers make the work happen. If you are so fortunate to be able to hire the right people, for the right spots on the bus, right away – then you have little need of any more advice. But, if you are like any other leader who makes the right hire only most of the time, then you understand that the culture you create by valuing the perspectives, lives and potential of your subordinates is the best way to move the agenda of student achievement forward.  

Josh Parker,

2012 Maryland Teacher of the Year

3/2/15 – 11:16 p.m.

All You Need is Love: Solution Five for Engaging Black Boys in Reading

Solution Five: As a teacher, show love, compassion, interest and empathy for their lives outside of school

Love is one word with seemingly infinite meanings. Depending on whom you say it to you and who says it back, this grand four-letter word could mean practically anything.  At its essence, however, love is the most powerful action in the world. It is fitting then, that this ‘strategy’ concludes the five part series on engaging Black boys in reading.

Unlike earlier posts in this series, where I gave concrete steps to each strategy, I will outline five actions that are present when love pushes your pedagogy to reach every single Black boy in your classroom. Before I list the actions, I’ll start with a real life story that encapsulates the risk and reward of loving Black males.

My friend is the CEO of a music foundation geared toward helping children living on the margins of the inner city. His company uses the power of music to transfer empowering messages to students who desperately need it. A good number of the participants are Black boys and nearly all of them are working through some level of emotional or psychological pain. This pain became verbal and dangerous when one of his students reacted strongly to a direction in class. He was so angry that he stormed out of the classroom, into the street and almost two blocks down the road. That’s when my friend had to get involved.

***

Here are the five actions that are consistently seen in classrooms and schools where love is present:

You take time. Teachers, principals and the entire community of stakeholders supporting Black boys always make the chief investment of time. They take time to get to know every single Black boy’s story. They take time to research different educational practices that will help Black boys read, speak and write better. They even take the time to attend an extracurricular activity or two, just to show that special Black boy that they are there for the long haul. They see time as a means to an end for demonstrating how deeply they care about each boy’s success and life.

You show interest. Teachers who create a culture for Black boys to thrive always show interest. Whether the interest be in clothing choices or college decisions, teachers demonstrate their love for Black boys when they are interested in what they value, what they endure and what they can become. Dr. Cornel West once said that ‘justice is what love looks like in public.’ To that end, interest is what love looks like under a microscope. I can believe that you want to teach me. I can believe that you want to see me do well in general. But I can only believe you love me if you take an active interest in who I am. 

Black boys come into class each day with three questions: Do you like me? Do you like that I am here? Do you affirm my existence to be anything I am gifted to be? To the extent that a teacher answers yes to all of those questions on most days, is the extent to which Black boys will feel your love.

You choose texts and assignments thoughtfully. Teachers that love young and eager African-American males take the time to understand their experience. They understand the history of under-service (and consequently, under-performance) of boys and men of color in the public school system. They take time to research and truly understand the terrible legacy of slavery that was visited on the psyche of Black men for centuries and how that still manifests itself in the structures that seek to control and subjugate them today. They critically analyze how media portrays Black men as hyper-sexual, hyper-aggressive and mostly dangerous. These educators take in all of that information and love Black boys fearlessly by putting texts and contexts around works that affirm their right to be human. To be boys. They choose texts that confront Black males with community and global issues that some of them were born to solve. There is no such thing to an educator of a Black boy as a throw-away text. Every text has a purpose. In fact, these educators never even allow substitute teachers give their Black boys texts stripped of power and meaning. The cost is simply too high.

You create spaces for Black boys to be free. If I had to make a book title that represents most of my experience in education as a reasonably bright African-American male, it would be: Keep Calm and Be Quiet. This title would be apt, because even with the great successes I have had, I have always had to make sure that I was acting in a way that did not overtly challenge or offend the people around me, both Black and White. This is not an uncommon experience for Black males in education, both as a student and as a professional, or in the corporate setting. We are always aware that our presence adds information to a setting. In a classroom run by a teacher who loves Black boys, their freedom is paramount. This love may manifest itself as daily free-writes that allow unfiltered expression, or as poetry/rap sessions in response to classroom assignments. It may even show up in the allowance of some boys, like me, to stand and walk rather than remain seated for 90 or more minutes. The teacher who loves Black boys is passionate about seeing them in their most authentic psychological spaces. This teacher thoughtfully combines established school rules and procedures with reasonably appropriate student autonomy to create an environment that is not only under control, but ready to launch.

You openly show affection. The fist-bump, the dap, the nod or the hand-shake hug. Whatever way there is to show affection physically or verbally, the teacher that loves Black boys displays it openly and often. Boys and men flourish in fields of praise and affection. Why do you think we participate in so many sports or dream of performing in concerts or winning the teacher of the year award (maybe not the last one, but you get my drift)? It is because the affection of praise waits on us in every situation. The teacher that loves Black males respects their boundaries (as outlined in Domain II. A. of this draft code of educator ethics) while showering them with verbal and physical affection. These teachers smile wide and bright at just the sight of an African-American male walking into their class.

And when one runs out of their classroom, they pursue him.

***

Seeing that the counselors could not stop the boy from leaving the building, my friend, the teacher, asked if he could help. Several yards later, he caught up to to the student. The student was trembling as he tried to re-tell all of the reasons he became so upset. After his words began to come together more smoothly and his shaking stopped, the teacher asked to pray with him. The boy consented. As my friend finished the prayer, he opened his eyes to see that the student had run out of his shoes. “May I carry you back,” he asked the Black boy. “Yes,” he nodded. As this teacher picked the student up in his arms, the boy began to sob almost uncontrollably. It was as if that act of affection released a deep reservoir of relief within him. At that moment, the teacher realized that instruments, lessons and assignments were just tools, but that love was the binding force that every child needed.

***

Editors Note: Each of the blog posts containing strategies about creating a culture for Black boys to thrive in reading is aimed at helping Black boys do well in the area of literacy. Although each blog post specifically and intentionally written for Black boys, the philosophy that supports each approach should help in any situation where teachers, principals and stakeholders seek to enhance the educational access for traditionally under-served populations.

The amazing foundation featured in the blog post is called ‘Beyond the Natural’ foundation and can be supported by clicking onto this link.

Josh Parker

2012 Maryland Teacher of the Year

2/26/15 - 1:25 a.m.

Teaching Children Well: A Sacrificial Commitment

Do you remember your first favorite teacher? I do. She made me feel like I could do anything and that I was destined to make a contribution to this world. She made me believe that the peculiar details about my life were enough by themselves to demand her full attention. I mattered in her class. It would be almost 20 years later that I would truly understand what made her great.

The first two and half months of my teaching career were days without nights. Each morning, I left my studio apartment in Baltimore city just after 5 o’clock, and returned 19 hours later. A bus would take me into downtown and then out again to the furthest part of my district. With freshly graded papers in hand, I managed to make it into class just before my students. Later, I would bundle a stack of newly gathered papers under my arm and wait in the summer heat for the bus. Once home, I would fully waken from the bus rides and begin grading papers in preparation for the next day.

I loved it.

To see light-bulbs go off in a student’s eyes after the sequence of a meticulously planned lesson works; is rapture! The ways students smiled when they entered my class (on good days), or vowed to be better (on challenging days), was what I lived for. But it was in the bus-rides and back-aches that I really understood my high school teacher. Every smile she gave was expensive. There is honor in that. Survey after survey ranks teaching as one of America’s most prestigious professions. But how many really know the sacrifice it takes to teach just one child well?

It takes a life.

If there’s any beauty to a story that contains two near-nervous breakdowns, a car accident on the way to work, two slashed tires and numerous shirt-grazing pencils, it’s that my story is not unique. Teachers who love children commit to it for life. Our commitment always goes beyond a day, a year and often-times a career (most teachers retire – to teach again). When we are at our best, we combine proven praxis with a desire for heart level connections with children, sincere interests in their lives and unyielding passion for their safety and success. This commitment, however, has always been on shaky ground.

Do you remember the most recent teacher scandal? Or your first worst teacher (it’s possible both are one and the same)? I do. It reflects poorly on all of us, every time. The prevailing notion is that the teacher you are thinking about now and the teacher from the beginning of this article are actually different teachers. However, without a set of guiding principles shared by all educators, the first teacher could very easily become the second.

We need a code of ethics.

Swiss writer Denis de Rougemont once said that "love ceases to be a demon only when he ceases to be a god." A code of ethics then, takes our passion, desire and commitment from lofty and ethereal realms to a plain and practical place where our diverse backgrounds and beliefs don’t pre-dominate the professional principles that should be common to us all. This code is an agreement that honors our sacrificial commitment by creating a common language and understanding of the promise we give to every single child and their family, the moment we assume the role of teacher. Within this framework, the under-service of black and brown children becomes more than immoral - it becomes unethical. By defining our norms, this code can guide a diverse teaching force through dilemmas and situations where boundaries can be blurred through the lens of upbringing and good intentions. The code is what could help our first favorite teacher, stay that way. In fact, if we are to consider ourselves a true profession on par with doctors and lawyers, we need a code of ethics.

Ten years later, my mind floats back to those early days. Do I still operate with that same commitment? I have listened to countless educators express that the increase in testing, over-reliance on student data and injection of politics has squeezed their commitment dry. We now listen to people who have never felt the joys and pains wrapped in the sacrificial commitment it takes to teach children well tell us how broken our life’s work is.

We are tired.

Despite these outside forces advancing upon this great calling, I believe there’s hope. We start taking back the conversation over our work by seeing ourselves as true fiduciaries in the field of learning and establishing a code of ethics that allows us the freedom to self-govern if necessary, but also collaborate on what is the least acceptable standard of excellence that will honor our life-long commitment.

Josh Parker

2012 Maryland Teacher of the Year

@MDTOY2012

2/24/15 – 11:40 p.m.

Editors Note: The National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification (NASDTEC) have written the first ever nation-wide Model Code of Educator Ethics. It is now available for public comment at this location: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DMCN6XF

The 'Glory' of Connection: Solution Four for Engaging Black Boys in Reading

“They gave tongue to interesting thoughts of my own soul, which had frequently flashed through my mind, and died away for want of utterance.” Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave

The 50^th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X was two days ago. In the midst of all the Twitter tributes and Facebook fanfare, I reflected on my own ‘Malcolm X’ phase which started during my undergraduate years at Towson University and still continues, in some form, to this day. Seeing a Black man whose speech was so articulate, so honest, so unflinching and so visceral was a powerful experience for me. In education, as in life, the qualitative comes before the quantitative - I have to see it before I can repeat it. This visual example of Black self-esteem pouring out through potent truth-telling was an object lesson for me.  But it was not the first time I had been connected to a powerful Black male orator.

Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to me in middle school through the screen of the Cosby Show. Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay and Paul Laurence Dunbar had a coffee talk with me in high school. Richard Wright and Alex Haley left their words with me in college. Frederick Douglass and Ralph Ellison allowed me to give their words to others in college and post-graduate school life. Those historical writers provided a context for me that was then complemented by ‘contemporary’ Black male voices in hip-hop and late 20^th century Black literature. These writers helped me (and still help me) develop my literate identity, which sprang out of my Black awareness:

Awareness of being Black is the most powerful and the most fertile single inspiration for Black writers in America. It is ironic that Blackness, for so long regarded as a handicap socially and culturally, should also be an artistic strength . . . . All writers arrive at a reconciliation of a sense of tradition and a sense of difference. For nearly all Black writers in America that sense of difference was the recognition of Blackness. For nearly all, but not all. Being Black was less important for Charles Chesnutt than it was for James Baldwin. But for most, Blackness was the spur, the barb, or the shirt of pain that moved the artist to achieve distinction. -Charles T. Davis and Daniel Walden

Below are four ways that you can connect  African-American male students with their historical (and contemporary) counterparts; thereby allowing them to have a template to express the thoughts of their mind, that could ‘die away for want of utterance.’

Start early. My son is only four years old at time of this writing, but my wife and I have been reading him books about Black males or with Black male characters since day one. It is never too early to show Black boys that they count by making books featuring them a regular part of instruction. Here is a list to get you started. 

Use poetry and story. In Daniel Pink’s book, ‘A Whole New Mind,’ he posits that being able to create a story will be the way jobs are created in the economy of the future. I can think of no better way to help Black males feel at home in a literate space then to invite story into the classroom from Pre-K through 12. Have your Black male students write their own stories as shown here. Also, use poetry to reflect the Black male experience and all of its iterations from dreams to love of Black women to a desire for home.  It’s about providing models of Black men expressing their thoughts and emotions for young Black boys yearning to do the same.

Supplant or supplemented the mandated curriculum as necessary. Anais Nin’s famous quote ‘We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are,’ is critical when it comes to the types of texts we put in front of our Black boys. These potential-rich boys may not relate to Shakespeare or Chaucer due to an intimate connection with their own milieu. To that end, maybe Richard Wright and August Wilson are better playwrights for Black boys. This does not mean to abandon works that are a part of American culture. Where would I be without this work? But, it’s about helping reify the themes and life experiences of Black Boys (‘If you can teach me how to cling to that which is real to me…’) while also informing their minds about the conventions of the language of wider communication, (‘while teaching me a way into the larger society…’), thereby allowing every Black boy to establish a text-to-self connection and a self-to-teacher connection (‘then will I drop my defenses and hostility, and I will sing your praises and help you to make the desert bear fruit.’ Ralph Ellison).  

Show Black men shining. I love watching Black men powerfully tell the truth. I love seeing us speak with authority, like what happened last night. If we regularly feed images like these to our Black boys, it can serve as a counter-narrative to the many destructive images the media pumps out an alarming rate. Black boys should see Black males debating and winning, speaking from places of power and emoting with vulnerability and passion. Black male brilliance must be seen. Remember, it first must be qualitative before it can be quantitative.

Ending note:  Curriculum is so much more than course guides, syllabi, standards and worksheets. Curriculum is the classroom environment that is created by accepted words, actions and ideas both in texts and from students and teachers. This environment is created second-by-second, and has the power to affirm or ignore the existence of traditionally under-served students and their cultures. When the curriculum is malleable enough to put Black male students and their experiences at the center, we create a space for them to thrive!

Only one more strategy to go.

Give a Black boy an amazing literary experience the next class period,

Josh Parker

@MDTOY2012

2/23/15 @ 9:10 p.m.

Scoring Points and Culturally Responsive Instruction: A Metaphor for Understanding

Imagine you are standing on a basketball court and a physically fit young man comes dribbling up to you. He stands in front of you, a few feet away. His arms are slender yet well defined, his height is suitable to play multiple positions; he’s not too tall - neither too short. Later, when you watch him play against opponents within his level of competition, he fares reasonably well. Although he can score, he is limited in the way he scores the basketball. He tends to dribble to the right and stop right at the edge of the free throw line, rising over a typically smaller defender to sink the jump shot. Wherever he is on the court, this is the move he will perform – a hard couple of dribbles to the right followed by a quick pull-up. This method has worked for him for years. 

From the baseline: look left, hard two dribbles to the right and pull-up. From the top of the three-point line: look left, hard two dribbles to the right and pull-up. From inside the paint, just under the basket: look left, hard two dribbles to the right and pull-up. Every time and from every place on the court: look left, hard two dribbles to the right and pull-up. This method has a problem, however. 

If the defender can account for his move and stand ready to block him from going to his right; if the defender is taller and can jump higher than the young man, then he will be continually frustrated when trying to score. This is the same issue that crops up into a classroom as it relates to literacy instruction or any other kind of instruction.

                                                              ###

The young basketball player is your average traditionally under-served or marginalized student. He has developed one ‘go-to’ skill for navigating school and classroom life. This limited skill set only allows him to access texts, ideas and themes in a narrow context. He does know, however, in depth the rules of basketball, but has not developed a skill-set for scoring the ball around defenders who are taller and more athletic. The defenders represent more difficult texts, increased writing demands, the school system and the larger power structure of society. 

Culturally responsive instruction is what provides him that missing skill-set. Culturally responsive instruction takes his in depth knowledge of the rules of basketball and asks him to apply that conceptual understanding to developing ways around and over the obstacle of a taller and more athletic defender. 

Culturally responsive instruction gives him a left-hand dribble. A cross-over and step-back move. A low-post game. An off-the dribble three-point shot. A floater. A leaner. A hard-drive and pull-up. A high-post, reverse-inside pivot face-up, pump fake and drive. It gives him multiple moves around the taller, more athletic defenders in his life. It invites him to see that his critical mind in his out of school life can also be applied to his life inside school, giving him the power to control the sport that he plays instead of being a one-move ‘spectator.’ A one-trick pony.

Discovering the Next Langston Hughes: Solution Three for Engaging Black Boys in Reading

This is part three of a five-part series the describes ways to create a classroom/school culture where African American males thrive in reading and writing (Click on part one and part two for prior installments).

3. Give multiple chances for African American males to speak and write about things they are passionate about (also give multiple performance opportunities)

"Without a vision, the people perish," was the title of the first speech I ever gave. I was barely ten. It was a rush, to be sure, but it was also a bit robotic. My speech was (thankfully), heavily crafted by my parents and I practiced it so much that the delivery felt more like an involuntary reflex than a dynamic presentation. Nonetheless, I was introduced to the public stage at an early age and almost twenty years later, I was here, speaking to hundreds of educators after receiving the 2012 Maryland Teacher of the Year award. I doubt the second speech happens without the first one.

This same opportunity to speak publicly on issues of great importance is a characteristic of a culture that engages Black males in the reading, writing and speaking process. Below are five ways to establish this practice in your classroom/school:

1. Feature free-writes frequently.

My first year as a high school English teacher featured no less than five fights or near fights within the my first few months. All of them between and among Black males. Coming from middle school, I really hadn't experienced this. After going to a professional development session facilitated by the late, great Paul Slocumb on Boys in Crisis, I started to get some ideas. I followed that up with watching one of my favorite movies of all-time - 'Freedom Writers,' and it dawned on me that one part of the solution may be to give my Black boys the pyschological space to unload their thoughts, passions and fears. I established free-writes on almost a daily basis for all of my students. They were to write without stopping for at least five minutes on any topic they felt strongly about. If given permission, I would then read what they wrote (more on that in a future blog post). I didn't have one fight that year.

2. Main-Idea Mondays, Thematic Thursdays and Free-style Fridays. 

Take a literary skill that your Black males are already strong in, and give them an opportunity to publicly practice that strength with a literary practice of their choice (spoken word, speech, rap, free-style, poetry, song). You can do this weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly on pre-planned days. You can also have a majority of the Black males prepare and only call a few up in front of the classroom. (Or you could have them perform their pieces in pairs and by elimination, have the best five perform at the end of the class). Remember the focus is on their experiences, their passions and their strengths. If there is an opportunity to insert parts of the texts you're currently reading, then use it. If not, then don't.

3. Standardize the feedback loop for speeches.

In the masterful book, 'Leverage Leadership' by Paul Bambrick Santoyo, the idea of data-driven instruction is grounded in the practice of providing students (and teachers) with simple rubrics that are flexible enough to be used on multiple assignments and in multiple grades. This idea is buttressed by ideas in the fantastic book, 'Focus' by Mike Schmoker in which the idea of less is more when it comes to rubrics and assessments is emphasized. So, here's what that looks like in your classroom:

1/ Have students look at great and bad speeches.
2/ Allow them to critique both the good and bad speeches.
3/Pull out their critiques into a simple five-point rubric.
4/Create it and display it in the classroom (as well as throughout the school, if possible)
5/ Have every single speech, spoken word, rap or poem judged by that rubric for the duration of the year

4. Enthusiastically celebrate great writing by your Black male students.

When your Black boys create awesome works of prose or poetry, frame them. Celebrate them. Have the boys recite them. Reference lines from them in worksheets. In exemplars. In essays. Compare their writing to great writers from the past. Have them create a writer's notebook in which they keep beautiful pieces of writing from their outside-of-school experiences. Have them recite these pieces in front of the whole school....

5. Create school-wide opportunities for speaking (especially for Black males).

My senior year of high-school was pretty awesome. I finally had a grounding of who I was as a person as well at least more than three friends (don't laugh). I also was given the ability, along with my best friend, Paul Williams, to plan the school's first ever Poetry Slam. From the audition to the planning to the actual shows, it was one of the most powerful experiences I will ever have with writing and speaking. Some of the students (most of whom were Black males) who auditioned, literally took our breath away and did the same to the student body. It was there that I had a seminal moment in my life on stage. After struggling with being a year younger than all of my peers since the 5th grade, I finally made peace with my awkwardness and 'immaturity.' I came out in a shirt and tie and slacks and over-sized tennis shoes and performed a poem called 'Maturity.' (The mixture of clothes was to show that maturity can come in different forms and to honor the different parts of people who don't fit the accepted idea of 'normal'). I uttered my last line as a stinging rebuke to all of the taunts, cheers and teases hurled my way. The crowd erupted in applause. It was emotional. It was cathartic. It was magical.

******

When I first heard 'Harlem' by Langston Hughes, I was enthralled by how utterly simple he had captured the emotional battle between hope and despair. I never knew words could dance like that. Now, having heard it hundreds of times since then, I still am inspired by the musicality of his words. Hughes came out of a culture that allowed him to express these thoughts without edit and without censorship. If we are to uncover the next Langston, these same conditions have to exist in our classrooms. If it doesn't happen, where do the dreams, hopes and fears of our Black boys go? Maybe they just... explode.

Forgiveness and Ferguson: Seven Ways to Move Forward

"Forgiveness doesn't absolve anyone of blame. It doesn't clear their record with God. It just clears you of having to worry about how to punish them. When you forgive another person, you're not turning them loose. You're just turning them over to God, who can be counted on to deal with them His way. You're saving yourself the trouble of scripting any more arguments or trying to prevail in this situation. It's not about winning and losing anymore. It's about freedom. It's about letting go." - Love Dare Reminders App

His hands were not up. 

Hours of testimony to a grand jury, with several Black eyewitnesses, revealed that Michael Brown wasn't surrendering, but advancing. Whether you believe it or not, that's what we have on official record in court. There are, of course, alternate versions of the account that could be the truth as well.

But that's not the point. 

If we focus just on his hands, or his situation, we miss a huge learning moment. A young, unarmed, Black male teenager lost his life. He lost it at the hands of a police officer who, according to hours of testimony, acted instinctively in a life or death situation. Focusing on that moment of confrontation misses the idea that the chance for this to end peaceably was lost at the beginning.

When Office Darren Wilson first approached Michael Brown and asked him and his friend to move to the sidewalk. Keep this picture in your mind - Officer Wilson first sees Michael Brown and his friend walking in the middle of the street. 

We will come back here a little later.
                                                                   ***
When I was a classroom teacher, I quickly learned the leveraging power of respect when engaging with young adults (males in particular). My years as a high school English teacher and basketball coach taught me that there are certain ways you approach young men if you want them to do something. Your tone and language can either defuse or elevate a situation. There are many times that I've chosen the wrong tone or spoken without empathy. The results were always bad. I think that's at least where we can start the learning for race relations - at the empathy level. So, here are seven starting points that could either help prevent another Ferguson situation or create conditions for better race relations overall:

1. Different races, mingling in intimate spaces. Different races rarely mingle together in spaces intimate enough for us to truly understand each other. White people have to be courageous enough to want to find out what it means to be Black in America. Black people have to be fearless enough to share our truth in a way that doesn't indict White Americans who may have no idea of the system in place. I've heard it said that racism rarely, if ever, survives experience. Maybe a start is for churches to start worshiping together at least once a month - the majority Black Baptist church mingling with the White Methodist church every First Sunday. This wouldn't solve everything, but could at least open us up to truly seeing each other in some of the most personal experiences we could have.

2. Healing from within. As Black people, we have to deal with our self-esteem. Decade after decade after decade, we live out centuries-old oppression in our daily lives without really addressing the historic scars that are still bleeding inside of us.

We still think about slavery. We still think about the idea that people who only differ from us in skin color can see us as property, inferior and a threat at the same time. We still have a desire to look pleasing and be acceptable to them. We still have to deal with a Euro-centric idea of beauty, professionalism and public behavior. It is not lost on us that most movie stars, magazine covers, Barbies, stocking colors and band-aids are all in the same hue.

We have to acknowledge the hurt we may feel and arm ourselves with the protection of poems like this one from Langston Hughes, or songs like this one from Donny Hathaway (originally Nina Simone). We need to make new songs, poems and movies that portray Blackness as it is - beautiful, undaunted, irrepressible, resilient, sexy, handsome and unstoppable. We don't need 'Black-ish', we need Black-ness!

This healing from within doesn't just stop with self-affirming literature, but it should travel between and among us in every sphere - when we encounter each other in the professional atmosphere, we should be the loudest ones praising each other. When we see each other doing well personally, we should be the first ones to support each other. When we see each other suffering, we should all band together to encourage and lift up. This way of behavior comes after we have reacquainted ourselves with our legendary history. This collective self-esteem is the power we need to continue pressing on, as Alice Walker put it, 'broad, ever moving and holy, as the sea.'

3. A true 'liberal' education. Don't get stuck at the word 'liberal,' as I am in no way suggesting a politically liberal perspective on education, but liberal in the sense that many perspectives and experiences are welcomed into education at all levels. From pre-kindergarten through a terminal degree, there should be perspectives from both the Conservative and Liberal perspectives. It should be known that our particular brand of slavery was peculiarly American. It should be known that reparations have been given to minorities in America already. Bill Clinton shouldn't be lionized anymore than Ronald Reagan should be demonized. In addition to multiple politically tinged perspectives, there should be room for multiple cultural perspectives. If you're a kindergarten student in Kansas, a book with a Black or Brown face should be commonplace. If you're a third-grader in Baltimore, Shakespeare and Claude McKay should be taught together. Because the canon of literature has been historically White and European, overt measures must be taken to put at the center of instruction books that highlight different cultures. When you constrict the point of view to one political side of the spectrum (depending on your state) or to one cultural perspective, you could get children sitting in their sects in the cafeteria who end up growing up and still sitting in their groups in the House and Senate. Grid-lock is a function of myopia, productive conflict is a result of multiple perspectives.

4. Black communities self-advocating. Although these steps aren't meant to be sequential, I think self-advocacy within the Black community happens logically after some healing and self-esteem has been built up within our community. After that, we learn to consistently, legally and effectively advocate for our agenda and our significance in every institution that traditionally under-serves us.

In practice, it looks like groups of Black parents collaborating on ways to bring concerns to the school if their Black males (or females) aren't achieving at high levels. Day, after day, after day, after day; until change happens. It's Black people voicing their displeasure at anyone in power if our needs aren't being addressed or helped politically, no matter who the party in power is. It looks like Black professionals advocating for the inclusion of other qualified Black professionals in positions where diversity can make a significant impact. It's about Black people being unafraid to levy their complaints and courageous enough to hold institutions financially or legally accountable if they do not serve our interests. We can't be afraid to advocate for ourselves.

Whether it be asking aloud the question of why there hasn't ever been a Black Bachelor(ette) on ABC, or wondering aloud why most of the magazines and greeting cards in a grocery store (or book store) don't show Black and Brown faces. We need to advocate for our place in a society that we helped build and have given a myriad of significant contributions to.

I do want to add that this is where the White community can band together with the Black community in yet another personal space and advocate with us for better education, better media images, better employment advancement, better living conditions and better economic outcomes.

5. Critically consuming media. In the absence of having real-life experience between different races, I think popular media's images and messages of Blacks has filled in the gaps. That's not a good thing. Blacks, and males in particular, are routinely shown to be hyper-aggressive, hyper-sexual and just plain hyper. For our country to move forward, we have to start calling out these one-sided, flat character portrayals of us. We are more than our worst characteristics and we are not monolithic as a culture. In fact, we aren't black-ish, so much as we are blackbrownwhitelatino-ish or blackconservativeliberal-ish or even blackchristianmiddlelowerclass-ish.  We are a beautiful combination of the best and worst parts of humanity - just like any other race. That's what we need to push for in social media, popular media and word of mouth.

We must also create our own rich images and messages and then vigorously support those images instead of the negative ones that are trotted out for us to consume in the feeding trough of popular media. This sentiment goes for the music industry as well. If we keep supporting violent messages about ourselves, how can we ever develop the self-esteem necessary to make better messages?

6. Returning our roots. This lengthy blog has basically said there are negative habits that we need to stop and positive ones we need to start. In order to determine positive from negative, there needs to be a common understanding of right and wrong. That understanding for many Blacks (and Whites) used to be the bible. Our roots when it comes to the Civil Rights movement or even before were firmly entrenched in the Christian faith. In the advent of the prosperity gospel and other wrong-headed moves of the church, Blacks have lost faith in that institution. That's not a good thing.

The morals and values communicated through active involvement in the church was the fabric that tied common decency together in our community. It was, and still is, the only place where Blacks were in intimate spaces, interacting mostly as equals despite socioeconomic status. In fact, socioeconomic status seems to be the dividing line within our community. We need to get back into the church. We need to reconnect with the spiritual foundation of our upward progress. Church can be a place of healing, of repair, of connection, of protection and of collaboration that we just don't have enough of in these times. To those who have walked away from church because of untrustworthy preachers or people - it's time to come back. It is time to forgive. We need you.

7. Forgiveness. During my first three years as a classroom teacher, I had pencils thrown in my direction, students rudely laugh directly in my face and two tires slashed, among other things. The first feeling that came to me after anger (and incredulity) left me, was a profound need to forgive. I needed to forgive the students regardless of their intent, because I myself have been forgiven for the many terrible things I have down in my life to other people either intentionally or unintentionally.

Forgiveness is the hardest thing to do when you have been hurt, but it's the most freeing thing to do. Just like the quote says at the beginning of this blog, it releases you from the responsibility of judgment and it frees you to be the better part of who you are. People who thrive off of hurt tend to never escape it. Forgiveness is also the one word missing from this discussion. I forgive Officer Darren Wilson. I don't know whether he intended to kill Michael Brown or not. I don't know for sure what happened in the situation. I do know that he killed a teenager and any decent human being never intends for that to be the result. I forgive him and we need to forgive him as a community. We also need to ask for forgiveness from the store-owners for the stores we looted and destroyed and any of the chaos we wrought upon innocent bystanders. We should be allowed to grieve openly, but not destructively.

Finally, we need to ask for forgiveness for years of underperforming, underachieving and not believing in our own ability to be the best we can be. We owe it to each other to be better in every part of our lives. We haven't been. There are legitimate barriers to our success, but the most significant one lies between our two ears. But it's okay to admit it and forgive ourselves. We can do better and we will. For this incident to have any lasting impact on our society - forgiveness needs to return to the scene and be prominently featured and lavishly given.

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So, let's return to our earlier scene where Office Darren Wilson first sees Michael Brown and his friend. Only this time, let's imagine he went to a church that fellowshipped with a majority Black church. Maybe Michael Brown was a member of that church, or someone like him. Let's imagine that he's had intimate conversations with African-American teenagers, both male and female. Conversely, let's imagine that Michael Brown was self-assured enough to not view police officers or complying with authorities as a threat. Maybe he's had personal conversations with police officers of different races. I think the exchange may have been different.

In some form or another, racism may always exist in a country that began with it. But I am still confident enough to hope and believe that significant strides can still be made. Hope by itself is not a plan for action, but it certainly can be a strategy for protection and for motivation to improve our world. 

-Josh Parker
Black Male, and2012 Maryland Teacher of the Year