April 18, 2024 • 32 mins
Jim Crow's Pink Slip - Dismantling the Education Gap with Amy Edelstein
In this episode of The conscious Classroom, Amy Edelstein helps illuminate the little-known history and ongoing influence of resistance to de-segregation within America's education system - and how mindfulness, being conscious and aware of our biases, is an important part of our work to redress inequity. Leslie Fenwick's seminal work, Jim Crow's Pink Slip, serves as a guide and compass, unveiling the long shadow left by the dismissal or demotion of a significant number of black principals and educators after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
This episode offers a deeper understanding of past injustices and their lasting impact and also shows some approaches that can support our efforts to shift the educational landscape. Expect to uncover why representation across racial and cultural lines is more than just a number—it's about students being able to see themselves in the leaders in their learning journey and a call to bring about change in our classrooms for each student and for the benefit of society at large.
Additional reading related to this episode can be found here:
- Jim Crow's Pink Slip by Leslie Fenwick
- https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/TCZ/Book%20Reviews%20Collection%202022/July%202022/Jim%20Crow%27s%20Pink%20Slip-1659381190.pdf
- https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2022/0912/How-the-1954-Brown-decision-still-influences-today-s-teaching-ranks
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to the Conscious Classroom podcast,
where we're exploring tools andperspectives that support
educators and anyone who workswith teens to create more
conscious, supportive andenriching learning environments.
I'm your host, amy Edelstein,and I'll be sharing
transformative insights andeasy-to-implement classroom
supports that are all drawn frommindful awareness and systems
(00:32):
thinking.
The themes we'll discuss aredesigned to improve your own joy
and fulfillment in your workand increase your impact on the
world we share.
Let's get on with this nextepisode.
Hello, welcome to this episodeof the Conscious Classroom.
(00:59):
My name is Amy Edelstein.
Today I want to talk about somereflections that were inspired
when I finished scholar LeslieFenwick's well-researched and
illuminating book called JimCrow's Pink Slip, which is about
what happened in the educationsystem, particularly in the
southern states, following theseminal Supreme Court decision
(01:22):
Brown versus the Board ofEducation in 1954.
I'd like to talk about that.
Usually, I don't talk aboutsuch specific legislation and
their impact on the educationalsystem, as we're focused more on
(01:45):
solutions and on contemplativepractice and how contemplative
practice can help us restoredignity, respect, equity,
balance, purpose, love, humanityand aspiration into our
education system, at the sametime understanding how we got to
(02:07):
where we are in America'spublic education system before
we dive in to address the gap isessential.
We need to know what structurallegislation was in place, what
informal actions that hadfar-reaching consequences were
(02:29):
the habit, informal policy underthe table policy, and we need
to think deeply about how we caninternalize all of that, since
it was was the history, withoutimposing any limitation on what
we can do now, recognizing, ofcourse, that what we do in the
(02:51):
present has long-termconsequence and as Fenwick
helped us see through documentedstudies, meticulous research,
documented studies, meticulousresearch, as well as combing
through the public US Senatetranscripts from 1971 on a
(03:14):
committee chaired by WalterMondale that was exploring the
impact of Brown versus the Boardof Education and the loss of
Black teachers and principalsand good, high quality Black
schools.
So her work is both her deepunderstanding as well as combing
(03:39):
through public record, and that, to me, is part of what has
given me impetus to think moreproactively and creatively about
how we can reach our studentsof color in better and better
ways.
So I'm going to dive into someof the key insights from that
(04:04):
book.
What I'd like to do before westart is diving into the details
, is to do a short practice.
We're going to do a thoughtbubble practice that's guided to
allow you to recognize what arethe immediate reactions.
(04:25):
What are the immediatereactions?
Curiosities, dead ends, brickwalls, biases, what's going on?
Just hearing that in a podcastlike the Conscious Classroom
we're going to be exploring thedesegregation of American
(04:46):
schools and, in effect, a higherorder of segregation that ended
up coming about among theeducators and the consequences
of that.
So if you're driving, please dothe meditation later.
Keep your eyes on the road andif you're not, put your phone on
(05:07):
, do not disturb for the nextfew minutes, really taking the
time and allowing yourself tonotice your preconceived
assumptions, your conclusions,convictions, and allow them all
(05:28):
to be.
This meditation is not toquestion or pick at our beliefs.
It's simply to notice what'sthere, to be conscious and aware
of what's arising, to beconscious and aware of what's
arising, to be conscious andaware of our emotional reactions
(05:50):
and be conscious and aware thatwe can hold all that in the
vast field of our own mind andallow room to observe the
phenomena that we're looking at,as well as our own conclusions,
(06:12):
in a new light.
So let's sit by being in anintentional posture, with our
spine tall, our hands relaxed,folded in our lap or resting on
(06:33):
our thighs.
You can find a beautiful shapeor color or window to rest your
gaze on, or you can close youreyes and allow yourself, as you
let go of the visual, to sinkback into yourself, allowing
(06:59):
yourself to rest in your ownself, in your own heart, in your
own strengths, in your own care.
Just like the bulbs in springpush their fronds up to the
(07:19):
surface and break through thecover of the dark ground, new
understandings can reach throughnaturally, in an affirming and
(07:40):
positive oriented way.
Allow yourself to soften andaccept your conditioning, your
exposure, and and allow yourselfto be curious to see what's
(08:08):
there, intentionally, mindfully,with care and with acceptance,
simply because that is what'sarising, that is what's there.
We don't need to act oneverything that's there.
(08:30):
Our mindfulness practice helpsus identify and be easy.
So begin by noticing your ownreactions and responses,
(08:52):
identifying feelings, thoughts,curiosities, disagreements,
angers or frustrations, andputting each of them in a bubble
and letting that bubble floataway.
(09:26):
As you notice your initialsurface layer of reactions,
allow those to float away andcontinue to look for the next
layer of reaction.
Conclusion interest,disinterest, blame, guilt, anger
(09:56):
, resignation or hope, passion,determination, conviction.
You can pause the podcast andcontinue making some notes for
(10:32):
yourself, naming what we see,making objective what's
subjective and allowing yourselfto capture your own reflections
(11:02):
and thoughts on the matter, andwe can finish the exercise now,
allowing yourself to re-engagewith your cognitive functions
(11:23):
listening and being curious witha little more space and a
little more calm and a littlemore ease.
In many studies it's been shownthat students of color who have
(11:45):
at least one teacher of colorfor at least one year between,
believe it or not, kindergartenand third grade saw improved
math scores raised by three tofive percent, so their reading
(12:05):
scores jump three to sixpercentage points.
That was in a study conductedby an education professor at
Stanford named Tom Dee, in 2000on students in Tennessee.
And another more recent studyin around 2022 in North Carolina
(12:27):
, conducted by four differentresearchers Gershenson, hart,
lindsay and Papa George saw thatstudents who had at least one
black teacher students of colorwho had at least one black
teacher between grades three andfive, students of color who had
at least one black teacherbetween grades three and five
(12:47):
significantly increased theirgraduation rate, reducing their
high school dropout rate.
This was brought to myattention when Inner Strength
did a strategic planning thatinvolved 10 of our students of
color.
That involved 10 of ourstudents of color and one
(13:13):
student very emphatically andkindly said she had a very
passionate and committed,dedicated young white instructor
from Inner Strength.
And she said, while thisinstructor was really kind and
really engaged and really niceand loved teaching, was really
(13:35):
dedicated to us, she said itwould be better if I had a
teacher who looked more like me,who looked more like me.
So we thought about it and asan organization have made a lot
of effort over the last fewyears to offer training
scholarships to encourage futureinstructors of color to develop
(14:03):
the skills to run mindfulnessprograms in school of color.
To develop the skills to runmindfulness programs in school,
we've offered paid internshipsboth to our older students and
participants in our courses,hoping that they'll continue on
as they mature and grow, go intocollege, and paid internships
to others who want to learn byplacement in the classroom.
(14:29):
And we're also engaging withour local colleges and
universities, setting upuniversity co-op programs to
bring in a cohort of youngerstudents and, with the emphasis
on students of color, creatingthose bridges both in age and in
(14:52):
culture so that our studentssee people in authority who look
like them, who are closer totheir age and who can hear and
listen and respond back fromtheir own experience in ways
(15:12):
that may connect a little moreclosely, or even be perceived to
connect a little more closely,with our students.
I invite any of you who areworking in the education field
(15:40):
and looking to bring moreinstructors of color into your
organization or into your schoolto share with me what you are
doing.
Forward-looking solutions arevery important, and using AI now
to diversify our questions andproblems and examples is much
easier and really important, andespecially the photographs and
(16:00):
images we use.
So back to Jim Crow's pink slipby Leslie Fenwick.
What she found was that in theyears following the decision
Brown versus the Board ofEducation in 1954, more than
(16:23):
100,000 black educators weredismissed or demoted and
primarily black schools wereclosed and those students were
moved into predominantly whiteschools.
Now, as she documents, theblack principals and teachers
(16:44):
said who were dismissed ordemoted, and she goes case by
case.
These are real people withdocumented histories.
Those black teachers often hadteaching credentials from
excellent northern universities,including NYU, columbia
(17:08):
University of Chicago,university of Pennsylvania and
University of Michigan, all ofwhich have excellent teacher
preparatory tracks.
These educators were oftenreplaced by less qualified white
educators with fewercredentials, white educators
(17:34):
with fewer credentials, fewerPhDs, fewer masters of education
, some without even a bachelor's, lower scores on educator
testing, educator tests and lessexperience both as educators
running schools and with thestudents that they were now
charged to educate.
(17:58):
The fallout has been extreme fora number of reasons which I'd
like to pull out.
As Fenwick says, and I'll quoteher here she says it's resulted
in what's perhaps the quotemost significant brain drain
from US public education systemthat the nation has ever seen.
It was so pervasive anddestabilizing that even more
(18:23):
than a half century later, thenation's public schools still
have not recovered, and we cansee that.
But many of us didn't know thatthere was a different history
and a different trajectory thatwas disrupted, and I'd like to
just take a moment to identifywhat the fallout is.
(18:46):
One we lost qualified educators.
A principal with an EDD fromColumbia is an asset to all
students.
We lost good people in theprofession in the immediate
(19:07):
aftermath.
We lost inspiration to thegenerations that they would have
taught or led.
We lost role models that wouldinspire really smart students of
color to enter into theteaching profession.
We lost role models to Blackcommunities, because those
(19:33):
principals and teachers withhigh degrees of education were
often community leaders and realrepresentatives to their
neighborhood.
Devastating blow to see themdismissed or demoted.
So discouraging, sodisheartening.
We lost qualified educators whowould have shaped curriculum
(19:55):
differently.
We lost their high expectationsthat would have uplifted Black
students, since they representedBlack individuals who excelled.
Since they represented Blackindividuals who excelled and in
a very long-reaching shadow, welost income to those Black
(20:26):
communities.
That 100,000 Black educatorsrepresented something like a
billion dollars of economic cutacross these southern states.
That would have resulted inhomeownership, in
intergenerational wealthcreation, in community
investment, in business startups.
(20:47):
We would be seeing a verydifferent present had those
educators remained in the schoolsystem.
The impact on the Blackcommunity can't be
underestimated.
(21:07):
As Fenwick researched amongBlack professionals during that
time, something like 72% of themwere educators.
So the majority of Blackprofessionals who got higher
degrees, who entered into theprofessional job market, did so
(21:29):
through education.
There was a great value oneducation, great emphasis on
education, great desire to bringmore young Black students up
into the professional world.
Losing such a huge percentageof them meant not only that the
(21:51):
black professionals of thatgeneration lost the momentum of
their education and often theemotional momentum that goes
with success, but it lost awhole generation that again
would uplift and inspire andeconomically contribute to those
(22:15):
communities.
The impact on the students washuge as well.
The result of Brown v Board ofEducation was supposed to create
desegregated schools and allowfor equity of access.
(22:35):
In fact, what happened wasBlack students were now moved
into previously all-whiteschools and their Black schools
were closed, often resulting inneeding to travel to
neighborhoods they weren'tfamiliar with, to be met with
(22:55):
indifference or dislike and tobe placed on a social hierarchy
as lower than the students wherethey were integrating to In
some sense.
For many of those aspiringstudents, the unintended
(23:16):
consequence of Brown v Board ofEducation, because of the
deep-seated resistance andbeliefs and prejudices and
unexamined emotional reactions,resulted in a lowering of the
(23:39):
quality of education.
How many teachers in schoolswere affected?
Fenwick's research covered mostof the 17 states in the South
that were operating raciallysegregated schools prior to
Brown versus the Board ofEducation and Prior to that
(23:59):
decision.
In those 17 states, 35 to 50%of the principals and teachers
were black.
30 to 50% of the principals andteachers were black in those
states.
Now I don't have the stats justfor those states, but today, of
(24:22):
the 3.2 million teachers in ourschools, only 7% are Black, and
of the 90,000 principals inthis nation, only 11% are Black.
Of the 14,000 superintendents,only 3% are black.
(24:42):
So we're not exactly comparingapples to apples.
In those stats which I don'thave other ones at my fingertips
right now states 35 to 50% ofthe principals or teachers were
black and we lost 100,000 ofthose principals and teachers.
(25:08):
We're seeing a huge shift inthe balance of representation
and when we see that kind ofshift in the balance of
representation, the impactpsychologically is even more
(25:29):
than the numbers show.
You see a slow but determinedattrition over a decade or two,
(25:53):
over a decade or two.
And now, in 2024, we still seepredominantly black and brown
schools run by teachers andprincipals who do not represent
the cultural background of thestudents they serve and B who
tend to have lower academicqualifications than those
serving predominantly whitestudents.
(26:18):
So what does this have to dowith mindfulness in education?
What does this have to do withmindfulness in education?
What does this have to do withmaking our classrooms conscious?
I want to take a few moments toreflect on that One.
What it has to do with ourconscious classrooms is checking
(26:41):
our biases with our consciousclassrooms.
Is checking our biases,assuming that education hasn't
been a priority in blackcommunities, rather than
understanding that there hasbeen an effort to remove
(27:04):
qualified black educators fromthe school system among a
significant number of states,and that tendency, of course,
spreads throughout the country.
So what are our assumptions,whether we're black or white, or
(27:24):
from a different culturalbackground, immigrant background
, what are our assumptions abouthow we got here, what are our
assumptions about the value ofeducation for our young people
and what are our expectationsthen?
People and what are ourexpectations then?
(27:48):
Part of being in a consciousclassroom is awakening to our
own unexamined conclusions,assumptions, expectations and
replacing them withintentionally, intentionally
constructed and deeply examinedbeliefs about the power of
(28:09):
education to open doors, theuniversal creative spirit in all
young people and the thirst forlearning that is simply part of
the human species.
We are a curious species.
I don't know what happens in anearthworm's brain, but I know
(28:35):
that in the human brain we loveexploring, experimenting,
learning, discovering andexpanding our horizons.
This is part of what makes ushuman Recognizing that in all of
our young people, allowing ourown mindfulness practice to
(29:00):
constantly allow for theunexpected, the unknown, the
experiential, to enable thatcuriosity to come forward in our
young people in ways that arepreviously unexpected and
unpremeditated.
Working with our students in alot of flipped classroom,
(29:25):
experiential learning,project-based learning
incorporating a significantamount of reflection,
peer-to-peer instruction,collaboration, sensory
demonstrations and activationsand expressions and enactments
(29:47):
of the concepts we're teaching,real-world scenarios, applying
the concepts to problems andsuccesses, celebrations that
relate directly to students'lives, all enable that learning
to come forward.
It requires a little bit ofthoughtfulness, but not much
(30:12):
more.
Retooling of our lesson plansand our own mindfulness practice
can really allow students todiscover their own innate
curiosity.
Support that Encourage them tobecome teachers, bring that
(30:34):
possibility to the forefront.
Our investment in our educatorsis our investment in the future
.
Our investment in exceptionallearning and teaching is our
belief.
It's a demonstration of ourbelief that a better world is
possible to create, and we areplanting the seeds for that
(30:58):
better world.
As we reflect on our own passionfor the possible through the
education process, let's allowourselves to feel the updraft in
our own hearts that ourstudents are not inherently
(31:22):
disengaged, inherently lessinterested in learning and
inherently less capable.
In a large part, it's been theresult of how environment has
shaped expectation and how theyshow up, and how they show up
(31:45):
and by simply opening up thecontext and shifting the
dynamics in the classroom, thenatural curiosity of these young
people will take over and that4-year-old or 6-year-old or
8-year-old or 14-year-old or18-year-old will start recasting
their own aspirations andself-reflections against a very
(32:11):
different mirror of expectation.
And as teachers, when we do,that's a beautiful thing, it's a
noble part of our professionand it's a real gift to the
future.
Thank you for listening to theConscious Classroom.
(32:31):
I'm your host, amy Edelstein.
Please check out the show noteson innerstrengthfoundationnet
for links and more information,and if you enjoyed this podcast,
please share it with a friendand pass the love on.
See you next time.
Welcome to the Conscious Classroom podcast,
where we're exploring tools andperspectives that support
educators and anyone who workswith teens to create more
conscious, supportive andenriching learning environments.
I'm your host, amy Edelstein,and I'll be sharing
transformative insights andeasy-to-implement classroom
supports that are all drawn frommindful awareness and systems
(00:32):
thinking.
The themes we'll discuss aredesigned to improve your own joy
and fulfillment in your workand increase your impact on the
world we share.
Let's get on with this nextepisode.
Hello, welcome to this episodeof the Conscious Classroom.
(00:59):
My name is Amy Edelstein.
Today I want to talk about somereflections that were inspired
when I finished scholar LeslieFenwick's well-researched and
illuminating book called JimCrow's Pink Slip, which is about
what happened in the educationsystem, particularly in the
southern states, following theseminal Supreme Court decision
(01:22):
Brown versus the Board ofEducation in 1954.
I'd like to talk about that.
Usually, I don't talk aboutsuch specific legislation and
their impact on the educationalsystem, as we're focused more on
(01:45):
solutions and on contemplativepractice and how contemplative
practice can help us restoredignity, respect, equity,
balance, purpose, love, humanityand aspiration into our
education system, at the sametime understanding how we got to
(02:07):
where we are in America'spublic education system before
we dive in to address the gap isessential.
We need to know what structurallegislation was in place, what
informal actions that hadfar-reaching consequences were
(02:29):
the habit, informal policy underthe table policy, and we need
to think deeply about how we caninternalize all of that, since
it was was the history, withoutimposing any limitation on what
we can do now, recognizing, ofcourse, that what we do in the
(02:51):
present has long-termconsequence and as Fenwick
helped us see through documentedstudies, meticulous research,
documented studies, meticulousresearch, as well as combing
through the public US Senatetranscripts from 1971 on a
(03:14):
committee chaired by WalterMondale that was exploring the
impact of Brown versus the Boardof Education and the loss of
Black teachers and principalsand good, high quality Black
schools.
So her work is both her deepunderstanding as well as combing
(03:39):
through public record, and that, to me, is part of what has
given me impetus to think moreproactively and creatively about
how we can reach our studentsof color in better and better
ways.
So I'm going to dive into someof the key insights from that
(04:04):
book.
What I'd like to do before westart is diving into the details
, is to do a short practice.
We're going to do a thoughtbubble practice that's guided to
allow you to recognize what arethe immediate reactions.
(04:25):
What are the immediatereactions?
Curiosities, dead ends, brickwalls, biases, what's going on?
Just hearing that in a podcastlike the Conscious Classroom
we're going to be exploring thedesegregation of American
(04:46):
schools and, in effect, a higherorder of segregation that ended
up coming about among theeducators and the consequences
of that.
So if you're driving, please dothe meditation later.
Keep your eyes on the road andif you're not, put your phone on
(05:07):
, do not disturb for the nextfew minutes, really taking the
time and allowing yourself tonotice your preconceived
assumptions, your conclusions,convictions, and allow them all
(05:28):
to be.
This meditation is not toquestion or pick at our beliefs.
It's simply to notice what'sthere, to be conscious and aware
of what's arising, to beconscious and aware of what's
arising, to be conscious andaware of our emotional reactions
(05:50):
and be conscious and aware thatwe can hold all that in the
vast field of our own mind andallow room to observe the
phenomena that we're looking at,as well as our own conclusions,
(06:12):
in a new light.
So let's sit by being in anintentional posture, with our
spine tall, our hands relaxed,folded in our lap or resting on
(06:33):
our thighs.
You can find a beautiful shapeor color or window to rest your
gaze on, or you can close youreyes and allow yourself, as you
let go of the visual, to sinkback into yourself, allowing
(06:59):
yourself to rest in your ownself, in your own heart, in your
own strengths, in your own care.
Just like the bulbs in springpush their fronds up to the
(07:19):
surface and break through thecover of the dark ground, new
understandings can reach throughnaturally, in an affirming and
(07:40):
positive oriented way.
Allow yourself to soften andaccept your conditioning, your
exposure, and and allow yourselfto be curious to see what's
(08:08):
there, intentionally, mindfully,with care and with acceptance,
simply because that is what'sarising, that is what's there.
We don't need to act oneverything that's there.
(08:30):
Our mindfulness practice helpsus identify and be easy.
So begin by noticing your ownreactions and responses,
(08:52):
identifying feelings, thoughts,curiosities, disagreements,
angers or frustrations, andputting each of them in a bubble
and letting that bubble floataway.
(09:26):
As you notice your initialsurface layer of reactions,
allow those to float away andcontinue to look for the next
layer of reaction.
Conclusion interest,disinterest, blame, guilt, anger
(09:56):
, resignation or hope, passion,determination, conviction.
You can pause the podcast andcontinue making some notes for
(10:32):
yourself, naming what we see,making objective what's
subjective and allowing yourselfto capture your own reflections
(11:02):
and thoughts on the matter, andwe can finish the exercise now,
allowing yourself to re-engagewith your cognitive functions
(11:23):
listening and being curious witha little more space and a
little more calm and a littlemore ease.
In many studies it's been shownthat students of color who have
(11:45):
at least one teacher of colorfor at least one year between,
believe it or not, kindergartenand third grade saw improved
math scores raised by three tofive percent, so their reading
(12:05):
scores jump three to sixpercentage points.
That was in a study conductedby an education professor at
Stanford named Tom Dee, in 2000on students in Tennessee.
And another more recent studyin around 2022 in North Carolina
(12:27):
, conducted by four differentresearchers Gershenson, hart,
lindsay and Papa George saw thatstudents who had at least one
black teacher students of colorwho had at least one black
teacher between grades three andfive, students of color who had
at least one black teacherbetween grades three and five
(12:47):
significantly increased theirgraduation rate, reducing their
high school dropout rate.
This was brought to myattention when Inner Strength
did a strategic planning thatinvolved 10 of our students of
color.
That involved 10 of ourstudents of color and one
(13:13):
student very emphatically andkindly said she had a very
passionate and committed,dedicated young white instructor
from Inner Strength.
And she said, while thisinstructor was really kind and
really engaged and really niceand loved teaching, was really
(13:35):
dedicated to us, she said itwould be better if I had a
teacher who looked more like me,who looked more like me.
So we thought about it and asan organization have made a lot
of effort over the last fewyears to offer training
scholarships to encourage futureinstructors of color to develop
(14:03):
the skills to run mindfulnessprograms in school of color.
To develop the skills to runmindfulness programs in school,
we've offered paid internshipsboth to our older students and
participants in our courses,hoping that they'll continue on
as they mature and grow, go intocollege, and paid internships
to others who want to learn byplacement in the classroom.
(14:29):
And we're also engaging withour local colleges and
universities, setting upuniversity co-op programs to
bring in a cohort of youngerstudents and, with the emphasis
on students of color, creatingthose bridges both in age and in
(14:52):
culture so that our studentssee people in authority who look
like them, who are closer totheir age and who can hear and
listen and respond back fromtheir own experience in ways
(15:12):
that may connect a little moreclosely, or even be perceived to
connect a little more closely,with our students.
I invite any of you who areworking in the education field
(15:40):
and looking to bring moreinstructors of color into your
organization or into your schoolto share with me what you are
doing.
Forward-looking solutions arevery important, and using AI now
to diversify our questions andproblems and examples is much
easier and really important, andespecially the photographs and
(16:00):
images we use.
So back to Jim Crow's pink slipby Leslie Fenwick.
What she found was that in theyears following the decision
Brown versus the Board ofEducation in 1954, more than
(16:23):
100,000 black educators weredismissed or demoted and
primarily black schools wereclosed and those students were
moved into predominantly whiteschools.
Now, as she documents, theblack principals and teachers
(16:44):
said who were dismissed ordemoted, and she goes case by
case.
These are real people withdocumented histories.
Those black teachers often hadteaching credentials from
excellent northern universities,including NYU, columbia
(17:08):
University of Chicago,university of Pennsylvania and
University of Michigan, all ofwhich have excellent teacher
preparatory tracks.
These educators were oftenreplaced by less qualified white
educators with fewercredentials, white educators
(17:34):
with fewer credentials, fewerPhDs, fewer masters of education
, some without even a bachelor's, lower scores on educator
testing, educator tests and lessexperience both as educators
running schools and with thestudents that they were now
charged to educate.
(17:58):
The fallout has been extreme fora number of reasons which I'd
like to pull out.
As Fenwick says, and I'll quoteher here she says it's resulted
in what's perhaps the quotemost significant brain drain
from US public education systemthat the nation has ever seen.
It was so pervasive anddestabilizing that even more
(18:23):
than a half century later, thenation's public schools still
have not recovered, and we cansee that.
But many of us didn't know thatthere was a different history
and a different trajectory thatwas disrupted, and I'd like to
just take a moment to identifywhat the fallout is.
(18:46):
One we lost qualified educators.
A principal with an EDD fromColumbia is an asset to all
students.
We lost good people in theprofession in the immediate
(19:07):
aftermath.
We lost inspiration to thegenerations that they would have
taught or led.
We lost role models that wouldinspire really smart students of
color to enter into theteaching profession.
We lost role models to Blackcommunities, because those
(19:33):
principals and teachers withhigh degrees of education were
often community leaders and realrepresentatives to their
neighborhood.
Devastating blow to see themdismissed or demoted.
So discouraging, sodisheartening.
We lost qualified educators whowould have shaped curriculum
(19:55):
differently.
We lost their high expectationsthat would have uplifted Black
students, since they representedBlack individuals who excelled.
Since they represented Blackindividuals who excelled and in
a very long-reaching shadow, welost income to those Black
(20:26):
communities.
That 100,000 Black educatorsrepresented something like a
billion dollars of economic cutacross these southern states.
That would have resulted inhomeownership, in
intergenerational wealthcreation, in community
investment, in business startups.
(20:47):
We would be seeing a verydifferent present had those
educators remained in the schoolsystem.
The impact on the Blackcommunity can't be
underestimated.
(21:07):
As Fenwick researched amongBlack professionals during that
time, something like 72% of themwere educators.
So the majority of Blackprofessionals who got higher
degrees, who entered into theprofessional job market, did so
(21:29):
through education.
There was a great value oneducation, great emphasis on
education, great desire to bringmore young Black students up
into the professional world.
Losing such a huge percentageof them meant not only that the
(21:51):
black professionals of thatgeneration lost the momentum of
their education and often theemotional momentum that goes
with success, but it lost awhole generation that again
would uplift and inspire andeconomically contribute to those
(22:15):
communities.
The impact on the students washuge as well.
The result of Brown v Board ofEducation was supposed to create
desegregated schools and allowfor equity of access.
(22:35):
In fact, what happened wasBlack students were now moved
into previously all-whiteschools and their Black schools
were closed, often resulting inneeding to travel to
neighborhoods they weren'tfamiliar with, to be met with
(22:55):
indifference or dislike and tobe placed on a social hierarchy
as lower than the students wherethey were integrating to In
some sense.
For many of those aspiringstudents, the unintended
(23:16):
consequence of Brown v Board ofEducation, because of the
deep-seated resistance andbeliefs and prejudices and
unexamined emotional reactions,resulted in a lowering of the
(23:39):
quality of education.
How many teachers in schoolswere affected?
Fenwick's research covered mostof the 17 states in the South
that were operating raciallysegregated schools prior to
Brown versus the Board ofEducation and Prior to that
(23:59):
decision.
In those 17 states, 35 to 50%of the principals and teachers
were black.
30 to 50% of the principals andteachers were black in those
states.
Now I don't have the stats justfor those states, but today, of
(24:22):
the 3.2 million teachers in ourschools, only 7% are Black, and
of the 90,000 principals inthis nation, only 11% are Black.
Of the 14,000 superintendents,only 3% are black.
(24:42):
So we're not exactly comparingapples to apples.
In those stats which I don'thave other ones at my fingertips
right now states 35 to 50% ofthe principals or teachers were
black and we lost 100,000 ofthose principals and teachers.
(25:08):
We're seeing a huge shift inthe balance of representation
and when we see that kind ofshift in the balance of
representation, the impactpsychologically is even more
(25:29):
than the numbers show.
You see a slow but determinedattrition over a decade or two,
(25:53):
over a decade or two.
And now, in 2024, we still seepredominantly black and brown
schools run by teachers andprincipals who do not represent
the cultural background of thestudents they serve and B who
tend to have lower academicqualifications than those
serving predominantly whitestudents.
(26:18):
So what does this have to dowith mindfulness in education?
What does this have to do withmindfulness in education?
What does this have to do withmaking our classrooms conscious?
I want to take a few moments toreflect on that One.
What it has to do with ourconscious classrooms is checking
(26:41):
our biases with our consciousclassrooms.
Is checking our biases,assuming that education hasn't
been a priority in blackcommunities, rather than
understanding that there hasbeen an effort to remove
(27:04):
qualified black educators fromthe school system among a
significant number of states,and that tendency, of course,
spreads throughout the country.
So what are our assumptions,whether we're black or white, or
(27:24):
from a different culturalbackground, immigrant background
, what are our assumptions abouthow we got here, what are our
assumptions about the value ofeducation for our young people
and what are our expectationsthen?
People and what are ourexpectations then?
(27:48):
Part of being in a consciousclassroom is awakening to our
own unexamined conclusions,assumptions, expectations and
replacing them withintentionally, intentionally
constructed and deeply examinedbeliefs about the power of
(28:09):
education to open doors, theuniversal creative spirit in all
young people and the thirst forlearning that is simply part of
the human species.
We are a curious species.
I don't know what happens in anearthworm's brain, but I know
(28:35):
that in the human brain we loveexploring, experimenting,
learning, discovering andexpanding our horizons.
This is part of what makes ushuman Recognizing that in all of
our young people, allowing ourown mindfulness practice to
(29:00):
constantly allow for theunexpected, the unknown, the
experiential, to enable thatcuriosity to come forward in our
young people in ways that arepreviously unexpected and
unpremeditated.
Working with our students in alot of flipped classroom,
(29:25):
experiential learning,project-based learning
incorporating a significantamount of reflection,
peer-to-peer instruction,collaboration, sensory
demonstrations and activationsand expressions and enactments
(29:47):
of the concepts we're teaching,real-world scenarios, applying
the concepts to problems andsuccesses, celebrations that
relate directly to students'lives, all enable that learning
to come forward.
It requires a little bit ofthoughtfulness, but not much
(30:12):
more.
Retooling of our lesson plansand our own mindfulness practice
can really allow students todiscover their own innate
curiosity.
Support that Encourage them tobecome teachers, bring that
(30:34):
possibility to the forefront.
Our investment in our educatorsis our investment in the future
.
Our investment in exceptionallearning and teaching is our
belief.
It's a demonstration of ourbelief that a better world is
possible to create, and we areplanting the seeds for that
(30:58):
better world.
As we reflect on our own passionfor the possible through the
education process, let's allowourselves to feel the updraft in
our own hearts that ourstudents are not inherently
(31:22):
disengaged, inherently lessinterested in learning and
inherently less capable.
In a large part, it's been theresult of how environment has
shaped expectation and how theyshow up, and how they show up
(31:45):
and by simply opening up thecontext and shifting the
dynamics in the classroom, thenatural curiosity of these young
people will take over and that4-year-old or 6-year-old or
8-year-old or 14-year-old or18-year-old will start recasting
their own aspirations andself-reflections against a very
(32:11):
different mirror of expectation.
And as teachers, when we do,that's a beautiful thing, it's a
noble part of our professionand it's a real gift to the
future.
Thank you for listening to theConscious Classroom.
(32:31):
I'm your host, amy Edelstein.
Please check out the show noteson innerstrengthfoundationnet
for links and more information,and if you enjoyed this podcast,
please share it with a friendand pass the love on.
See you next time.
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