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by Molly Castner
I teach middle school, and it’s such an important time for students to discover what books they like and to develop a solid reader’s ide...
In Lak’Ech
Tú eres mi otro yo.
You are my other me.
Si te hago daño a ti,
If I do harm to you,
Me hago daño a mi mismo.
I do harm to myself.
Si te amo y respeto,
If I love and respect you,
Me amo y respeto yo.
I love and respect myself.
In Lak’Ech is a timeless Mayan precept that Luis Valdez, who is regarded as the father of Chicano theater, incorporated into a larger poem called “Pensamiento Serpentino.” I’ve always been moved by the first line, which translates: “You are my other me.” I first learned of this poem from Dr. Curtis Acosta, one of the founding teachers of the K-12 Mexican American Studies (MAS) program in Tucson.
My students and I, like the students in the MAS program, recite Luis Valdez’s poem every day. The meaning within its lines speaks to our shared humanity and has transformative power. I’m pretty sure it changed my students, even my school. I know it changed me and the way I approach my own classroom.
I teach juniors and seniors in a diverse school, with about 65% African American, 25% Latino and large Middle Eastern and Kurdish populations.
One of my toughest moments as a teacher was walking back into the building the day after the election and trying to talk with the kids through their uneasiness, unsure how to address their questions.
I didn’t have answers. But I did have my time and my classroom space and a desire to make sure my students knew they were safe here. So we started focusing a lot on love. On equity. On making sure this class was a community where they could each process and talk about what they wanted to.
I joined Teachers for Equity, an initiative focused on helping teachers pursue a more racially equitable practice. Now I’m learning from other teachers, from their insecurities, challenges and successes. And thanks to my mentor, Dr. Acosta, who graciously passed the concept of the poem In Lak’Ech to me, I’ve tried to help my students focus every day on its message of loving and respecting others as we love and respect ourselves. When we do this, we create a safe environment in which students can go beyond the walls they put up as defenses and open up all the powerful ways they love.
We can do this through the culture we create and the materials we teach. By teaching curriculum that acknowledges the history and contributions of indigenous peoples – and goes beyond white, Anglo history – we deepen the connections students of color have to their learning and classrooms.
One of the ways I work toward racial equity is by ensuring there is no shortage of mirrors in our curriculum: opportunities for all my students to see themselves and their limitless horizons.
As I’ve pursued these changes to my practice, particularly over the course of the year, I’ve noticed my students changing in a way I hadn’t seen before, both academically and personally. They were more engaged in reading and writing, but I’d also hear them in the halls. It created a system of shared values for our classroom and study. It deepened students’ compassion and opened up their abilities to achieve to their potential. If a student made fun of someone else, others would speak up and say, “That’s not In Lak’Ech. That’s not how we treat people.” My students are inspiring and amazing – and not because of me. I found success by creating a space where we could celebrate what makes us unique.
Equity is how you operationalize love. When we learn to love our differences, and love each other enough to find our similarities, that’s an equitable space where each student feels safe to thrive.
It’s hard to know where to begin to make your classroom more equitable, and it can be heavy on the soul when you see your students grappling with things that make them question their own value. But if I could offer tips from my experience this year, they’d be threefold:
These three tips that worked for me won’t work for everyone, but teachers love learning – that’s why we’re teachers. Teaching, ultimately, is an act of love. So I’d encourage you to learn more about your students. Find your own way to make class equitable for them. Learn how you – and your students alike – can look at others and say, “You are my other me.”
by Molly Castner
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