Miss Porter's School OEI Newsletter February 2024

Questions from students for Jamiah Bennett

By Jamiah Bennett - Guest Writer

What are some moments where you have felt empowered by your identity as a Black woman in the field of education?

There are a number of moments where I have felt empowered by my identity as a Black woman in the field of education. I’ll speak to one of them. I don’t think I will ever forget one of the first interactions that I had with the parent of a Black student here at Porter’s. It was at one of the BIPOC family receptions at the beginning of the 2021 - 2022 school year, the beginning of my first year here. The parent came up to me and told me that my presence on the campus has made a difference in their child’s life. She went on to say that their child could see someone daily who looked like them, felt they could relate to, and was representative of a goal that they had. The parent thanked me for coming to work here, and for being a role model to their child.

As I mentioned this was at the beginning of my very first year here and, in complete transparency, I was having feelings of imposter syndrome. I was also not super confident in the work that I was doing. However, this interaction helped me feel empowered to continue doing what I was doing because it made a difference in the life of at least one person, without me even knowing.

Are there any particular role models or mentors who have inspired you in your journey as a Black educator? If so, who are they?

My grandparents and parents are my biggest role models. Growing up, my grandparents often told my sister, cousins, and me how much they loved learning and continue to love learning. However, growing up in the South during times of deep segregation and prejudice, they didn’t have as many opportunities to engage with learning inside and outside of the classroom to the extent that they would have liked to. My grandparents didn’t let that stop them. They took whatever opportunities they could to ask people questions, read, and build skills so that they would never stop learning. They did not do this by themselves or only for themselves. Through being in community with others, they engaged in storytelling and other forms of sharing/gaining knowledge.

Additionally, my parents have always talked with my sister and I about the various experiences that

we may have in our educational journey as Black girls and, now, women. They would provide us with tools as well as demonstrate what we would need to do to overcome some of the systemic barriers that could present an obstacle to our learning.

How do you choose to carry yourself daily?

For a while, I would choose how to carry myself based on what I believed to be the expectation of how I should carry myself in whatever spaces I was going to be in. While I certainly still keep that in mind, I now choose to carry myself based on what’s in alignment with my vision and values. Joy, love, and liberation are at the center of both of those. So, every day, I decide to carry myself in a way where I feel, and hopefully demonstrate, joy, love, and movement toward liberation.

Can you share advice for students, particularly those with Black identities, on overcoming obstacles and achieving success?

Please take care of your well-being. Obstacles that often come up for those with marginalized identities, particularly racial identities, are typically root-

Photo Credit: Jamiah Bennett

ed in systems of oppression that have hundreds of years of history. Trying to overcome those can take a toll on your well-being (physically, mentally, and emotionally). So, as you are overcoming obstacles, please prioritize taking time to pause, slow down, and rest. Tricia Hersey, founder of the Nap Ministry, talks about rest (which she defines as anything that connects your body with your mind and slows you down) being a form of resistance. So, you can think of resting and taking care of yourself as a form of resistance against whatever obstacle you’re facing.

I also encourage students to think about their understanding of success. If success is a matter of achievement, we achieve things regularly. We achieve progress towards a goal. We achieve getting dressed in the morning. We achieve nourishing our body. We achieve joy and being in community with one another. These are very general examples, but they show how success can be the achievement of many things. It’s important to recognize that and to celebrate the achievements that we have every day, even if others don’t see them.