Kids can’t read. At least that’s what we’ve been told to believe by folks trying to dismantle public education. Proponents of this refrain use frivolous things like standardized test scores with no reflection on what they’re conveying. It’s a prickly discussion to have given our current educational environment, happening in the midst of a censorship movement against books perceived to be more racially and/or LGBTQIA+ inclusive, a critical eye on what’s been dubbed “the science of reading“, and the influx of asylum seekers across the country. As these battles persist, housing insecurity remains ..read more

My son and I ran over to a super convenience store (you’ll know which one) to do some last-minute grocery shopping when we happened upon some notebooks in multiple colors, each of them college-ruled, 70-paged, and spiraled. The next row on the shelf featured rulers, erasers, pens, and other accessories that go under the “we may need this in school” bucket. The third row showcased pencil cases, sharpeners, and disinfectant wipes. After taking inventory of the back-to-school displays, and noting how my diligent wife and I took care of the majority of supplies a few weeks ago, I had a freak out a ..read more

“Just six more minutes left / We’ve done all we could do / And whatever happens next / I’m glad I’m here with you …” Being a dad is wild. As a youth, I recall weekend mornings chewing down giant bowls of sweetened cereal, and watching cartoons for the vast majority of my TV time. Then, after a decade or so when cartoons suddenly dropped from my viewing diet in favor of sports and news, cartoons suddenly become part of our viewing rotation thanks to my now-11-year-old son. Spongebob Squarepants has been around for most of that, and he and the other characters were direct descendants of cartoons ..read more

In the last year, I’ve visited four different classrooms, three of them within New York City. During my visits, I noticed similar trends: well-organized classrooms, bell schedules, students of varying dispositions (including behaviors), and lesson plans timed thoughtfully from beginning to end. Each of these classrooms was in a different school (and one was in a completely different state), but the job itself more or less felt familiar. We know from research that the American public generally trusts their local teacher. The American public also may believe in innovation, but generally want sch ..read more

When was the last time you cried at the end of a school year? I’ve done it about five times as a teacher, each moment with its own context. The first time was because I finished my first school year. I poured everything into that set of kids, despite some of the nonsense I put up with from peers to do so. The second time was because that first set of kids was graduating, and I never helped graduate a set of children before. The third was because I couldn’t finish the school year in the way I wanted to. The fourth was because the kids I had rotated with a group of students from sixth to eighth ..read more

Last Monday, a coalition of parents, educators, students, and New York City Councilmembers came together to rebuke school budget cuts to New York City schools. For their part, the present City Councilmembers sought to atone for their yes votes in favor of the decimating budget, elevating activists who’ve been at the forefront of a plethora of fights regarding our schools. For my part, I stood in wonder as dozens of people (with a former mayor on the side) came together this quickly and with this level of urgency. Of course, I also had something to say: View this post on Instagram A post sha ..read more

“Vilson, you should read the names of the graduates. You know them anyways.” We’re at a retirement party that my wife and I organized for Ms. Nuevo (now that she’s retired, I can name her) when another colleague (we’ll call Mrs. A) mentioned that my sixth graders were now eighth graders. It’s been two years since I left the school I called a second home for 15 years. I didn’t want to leave while COVID-19 upended our societal norms and a racial uprising momentarily grasped America’s imagination, but the system made it difficult to meet in a reasonable middle. I would have been just as happy tea ..read more

There was a moment, just as I was getting into the groove of my second class, where I thought I had it all together. And then, I didn’t. I’m teaching a class this summer on education and public policy at Teachers College, Columbia University, an endeavor I didn’t foresee until about a week and a half ago. Two years ago, I was a new doctoral student taking this class, and now I had a chance to remix it and interpolate it with some middle-school-pedagogical considerations and current knowledge to boot. But there I was, about 30 minutes into class when a student secretly messaged me mid-mini-lect ..read more

About five years ago, the Teacher Activist Group in Boston, MA invited me to speak at their 7th annual Boston-Area Education for Social Justice Conference. I had already been there a few times for keynotes and bore witness to the significantly evolving teacher activism landscape over those years, including the ascension of teacher-activist Jessica Tang to the president of the Boston Teachers Union. Sometime after my speech, the organizers asked me to sign books, which I was more than happy to do. At the tail end was a Black woman teacher who spoke to me at length about the state of schools for ..read more

Many of us end this year the same way we ended last year: by staring at screens, searching for answers to questions we don’t know how to ask. Screens of all sizes feed us information about the way people wrestle with institutions, with each other, and with themselves. The people who cheerled the personified mess four years ago and vociferously rebelled against any mitigation efforts have openly questioned why the current US president hasn’t singlehandedly eliminated the global pandemic. Conversely, many of the people who thought the last president would be gone within months of taking office h ..read more