Reflective Questions

We both loved the story shared by a middle school teacher in New Mexico, of a Pueblo Indian mother from Kewa Pueblo who chose to pull her two sons out of school completely in March of 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic (G. Tafoya, personal communication, January 7, 2021). She told school leaders that she would be glad to have her sons repeat a year if needed after the pandemic, but that the situation provided a perfect opportunity for her family to focus on the traditions of their culture and ancestry. Instead of trying to push academic content in the middle of the scariest thing many of us have experienced and forcing her children to sit online for hours a day, she helped her sons improve their language skills in Keres and taught them to weave, to farm, to harvest, and to cook—and by doing so, to look to their own culture for the answers they need when life gets hard. For many Indigenous cultures and marginalized communities around the world, such local, place-based learning experiences ensure students see traditional skills and the historical knowledge and experiences of their families as valuable—even more valuable than the kinds of knowledge the SATs prioritize (Getting Smart, eduInnovation, & Teton Science School, 2017). In many communities, such work, more often done in the home than in the schoolhouse, amounts to a decolonization of values that honors the unique goals of specific populations, rather than measuring success against those of the dominant culture.

The authors would love to believe that the COVID-19 pandemic could end up being a chance to get off the hamster wheel and focus education on what matters, as this mother chose to do for her sons. It’s impossible for us to predict where education will be by the time this book is published, honestly. But we know that any tragedy can be turned into an opportunity for growth and that our calling as educators is to prepare students for whatever that future might be. If we provide young people with an education based on their strengths, which never limits their possibilities, an education that positions them as protagonists and honors all facets of who they are as learners and people, students will be prepared to thrive in an uncertain and complex world. They might even turn out to be those key protagonists who reshape our collective future for the better.

Reflective Questions

Respond to the following questions alone or with your school team. • How well do you feel your educational context is addressing the learning needs of students as individuals? If you asked your students how supported and heard they feel, what do you think they might say, and how varied might their answers be?