A is for Activism: Tracy Aiden

AIS FOR ACTIVISM: Tracy Aiden

— by Theresa Collins With her epic collection of t-shirts for Black history month--one for each day--February is always special for Ms. Tracy Aiden. Beyond her amazing fashion sense, and the month of February, is a deep and abiding commitment to teaching her elementary school students through the lens of equity, kindness, and social justice. Ms. Aiden teaches “little people” at the University of Chicago Laboratory School, where her students spend three years with her in a loop. Before entering the field of elementary education, Ms. Aiden had a “whole other career as a counselor” for adolescents, working in a variety of CPS schools to help teens and their teachers develop peer mediation centers. Her work with children has been a lifelong element of her professional identity, however her move toward elementary education came after she had her own daughters. As she watched her own children’s education develop, in particular the ways that her daughters and their classmates were “invited to be part of their learning,” Tracy decided to make a pivot from older learners to the younger ones; because of her lifelong dedication to justice, her keen interest and focus on raising her daughters to be proud of their identity as young black women, and her strong sense of self as a progressive educator, her classroom work has always included social justice.

Over the course of the last 3 years with her students who loop with her from pre- k - 1st grade, Ms. Tracy’s learners have marched for Black lives, created buttons and a pop up t-shirt shop, made a public memorial for Breonna Taylor, mixed paint colors to reflect the variety of their skin tones, read dozens upon dozens of books that center and celebrate identity, community, and connection. Tracy’s work has had impact on her students and their families, anyone who follows her on Instagram, and recently, her co-facilitation for an online PEN Zoom space for BIPOC Women, and her presentation at PoCC 2020 titled “The Takeover: Creating ‘Blackspace’ Where Black Children are Valued in a Predominantly White School” which had an audience of close to 1000 attendees.

A NIPEN 5.0 alum whose work includes the classroom work students and a robust classroom newsletter for their parents, Tracy facilitates learning that embodies the Progressive philosophy that school is life itself, that the needs of society determine the work of the school, and that teaching and learning are a shared experience that extends beyond the classroom to the family and the communities in which our students live, learn, thrive, and to which they learn to contribute their “knowledge power skill and service.”

What follows is a collage of experience with Tracy--excerpts from an interview with Theresa Collins, former president of the PEN Board of Directors, and selections of Ms. Aiden’s own writing about progressive education, as well as images from her classroom which highlight her focus on equity and justice in her curriculum.

What are your students most interested in or curious about when you are focusing on issues of diversity and equity and the concept of sameness and difference?

The overarching theme is that they want to be able to take care of people. They want people to feel loved and supported. That makes them feel good. Jacqueline Woodson’s Each Kindness is my all time favorite book. I usually save it for their kindergarten year, but this year I read it to them in their 4 year old year. It’s about how when you put something out there, it ripples out into the world, it spreads. Even the smallest thing you do spreads out and can change someone’s life forever. So they are always talking about ripples and how what they do has rippled out and how it’s affected someone. So that is the core of our classroom community, our classroom family, is we are all about kindness. From the very beginning, at 3 years old: this is how we treat each other; we are stuck together for three years, we are gonna love each other, we’re gonna support each other, we’re gonna take care of each other.

Do you consider yourself a progressive educator, and if so, why?

I believe that I am, and always have been before I even knew what it was. I never enjoyed school as a child— it was a chore to me. I never felt that I was a part of my learning, so I was very deliberate in my student teaching and my beginning years to really invite children in to their learning, have them be curious and be wondering and be excited and hands on, and I found that alongside of them I Was excited about learning with them which is something that I never felt in my own learning when I was a kid. SO that’s kind of how I got there (to progressive ed); the first few years, I was like this is my jam, but later on when I started hearing about progressive ed, I was like “I think that describes me”I think that’s what I am, and then it wasn’t until I went to NIPEN that I really felt validated in everything that I was doing. Where I was like Yes. I’m gonna say it loud and proud, I am a progressive educator.”

How long has social justice been intimately tied to your pedagogy and how has it shifted over time?

Working in independent schools oftentimes lends itself to you being one of the few people of color. At Baker, I was the only black teacher for 13 years. What happened was that my girls started growing up. We were always very explicit about raising them to understand prejudice, racism, oppression, to understand all that stuff within their suburban bubble so

that they wouldn’t have culture shock when they left home. At some point I realized that I was teaching them lessons that didn’t translate to myself. What I want for my kids is for them to show up authentically in the classroom, to be themselves; I want to honor that, so it should be the same for their teacher. i shouldn’t have to be anything other than what i really am. i feel like i really teach who i am, it just comes out in everything that i do. That was kind of the key, I didn’t want to seem hypocritical to my own children. they kind of pushed me along— they didn’t know it, but i feel like that’s when i started thinking about myself, as well as thinking about inequities for our kids of color who come through progressive schools, really trying to give them a voice while also teaching our white kids what their responsibility is in the world to other people. It’s not all privilege. We all hold a responsibility. So (I’m) opening their eyes to the world and what we can do better and how we can do better. That’s kind of how it all started.

Bringing your authentic self; How do you share your voice and your experience as you help students and their families find their own voices when it comes to race, equity, inclusion, issues of social justice?

I think that what’s helped me is that I’m a black woman. I can always use myself as an example. I don’t ever have to use a child or a fictitious character. I always use myself and my experiences as the tool that I’m sharing for them to get a glimpse of what’s going on in the world. I feel like it’s my duty, if I’m going to be in that kind of setting that’s not helping my own people/people who look like me, then I need to make it work in a way that enhances the world of people of color, and people of less privilege. SO that’s how I always approach it. When we talk about privilege…I am okay with saying that I don’t live in a house, or some people only have one tv, or some people can’t afford Whole Foods, I can throw out examples that make sense to kids and they are like “Oh!:”It’s pretty honest and matter of fact, so kids feel really comfortable acting questions, and I use those moments as teachable moments. What helped with this group is that I had them as 3 year olds, so I feel like I’ve almost raised them. I’ve been able to plant little seeds each year to bring them along, and then we build on it every year.

Has your newsletter always been part of your practice? How does the newsletter help cultivate and germinate the seeds?

It informs parents, I try to ease their minds, give them a picture into what I’m thinking and where my thinking comes from. I’m pretty honest about my life, where I come from, I share a lot of myself so that they can make connections. I feel like it brings them in a little bit more into the topics we

are discussing. Because it seems more relevant to them— this could be about Miss Tracy. Parents panic. When you say “I’m teaching BLM” without any explanation, they panic, because one they don’t understand it, two they don’t’ know where you’re going, not understanding there is an age appropriate way to do it, and the newsletter really just breaks things down and it just gives them a glimpse into everything that we’re doing. It gives them a tool to have talking points with their kids, also.

What Progressive Education Means to Me

— by Tracy Aiden

“The needs of the society determine the work of the school.” — Francis W. Parker

I believe that progressive education is and should be a right for all children. As a Black teacher, I know and have seen that this is not what education looks like for so many children of color. All children should have access to an education that values their identities and spirits in a way that highlights their learning styles, interests and gifts they bring to the classroom community.

Progressive education isn’t just about academic achievement and knowledge of “stuff”. It’s about exposing children to relevant opportunities that will allow them to think about the world outside of their classroom.

Family, community and the world outside of school should be part of this education experience that engages children in meaningful learning that will expose them and give them tools to become active members in society, engaged citizens, allies and upstanders.

Teaching as a progressive educator gives me hope... I believe that children privileged enough to experience and be taught in a progressive education setting will one day be the world heroes that we look up to and be proud to have taught.