Page 6
January 27, 2016
O PINION
Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views of the
Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and
story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com.
Teachers Can Help Held Discrimination
Lessons learned in
the classroom
O livia a lPersTein
We all remember the teach-
ers who most inluenced us.
Life lessons learned in the
classroom stay with you for
decades. I was lucky to have
several great teachers, but my ifth
grade teacher stands out the most.
Nancy Livingston taught for 25
years in Princeton, N. J. at Littlebrook
Elementary School, where the mas-
cot is a giraffe and the school motto is
“Stick your neck out for others.”
Ms. Livingston always stuck her
neck out for us. I’m willing to bet that
every one of her students remembers
her.
From the irst day of school, she
spoke candidly about what makes us
all different and how learning about
our differences makes us better people.
She spoke about discrimination in the
by
context of history lessons and taught us
basic principles of social justice. She
made us laugh, and she made
us think.
There aren’t enough Ms.
Livingstons. While there are
strong, visionary teachers
who talk to students about
discrimination, there are also
those who stay silent amidst
incidents of bullying and prejudice.
Some teachers even become perpetra-
tors themselves.
Teachers can shape a student’s per-
ception of the world and their place in
it. Not every teacher feels responsible
for explaining the nature of discrimi-
nation, or showing students how to
counteract it. It’s not usually part of the
lesson plan.
That could change.
In a new letter from former Secretary
of Education Arne Duncan and his suc-
cessor, Acting Secretary of Education
John B. King Jr., the Education De-
partment is openly calling on teachers,
staff, and school oficials to “ensure
that young people are not subjected to
discrimination or harassment based on
race, religion, or national origin.”
King and Duncan were explicit
about the effects of such a toxic envi-
ronment: “If ignored, this kind of con-
duct can jeopardize students’ ability
to learn, undermine their physical and
emotional well-being, provoke retalia-
tory acts, and exacerbate community
conlicts,” they wrote.
School isn’t just a learning envi-
ronment — it’s a social environment
where we learn stark lessons about
privilege and status. Peer pressure,
bullying, racism — these are the most
impactful extracurricular activities stu-
dents may encounter.
Every nation needs more people
who are willing to ight for a better fu-
ture. Where better to learn about how
to stand up for what’s right than in a
classroom where you learn anyway?
It’s wonderful that two of the most
prominent K-12 leaders can recognize
the inluence that educators wield. Yet
Duncan and King are too vague. They
don’t make any speciic demands, out-
line any strategies, or even recommend
changing any policies. As leaders in
their ield, they can and should do more
to eradicate discrimination in schools.
For starters, the Education Depart-
ment could declare a long-term mission
to eradicate discriminatory education-
al policies. Many schools are already
dumping these policies, which harm
students of color and students with
disabilities. Some schools are even
revamping curricula and disciplinary
policies to account for the impact of
trauma on students’ behavior and abil-
ity to learn.
I hope all education leaders and of-
icials, along with our lawmakers, act.
The Ms. Livingstons of the world are
watching.
Olivia Alperstein is the communica-
tions and policy associate at Progres-
sive Congress. Distributed by Other-
Words.org.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Gospel of Action
We are the heirs
to the change he
sought
m arC h. m Orial
There is no shortage
of words in the English
language to describe
Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. By now—over
ive decades after his iery delivery of
the iconic “I Have a Dream” speech at
the Lincoln Memorial in Washington,
D.C.—you may feel as though you
have heard them all: leader, hero, vi-
sionary, champion, inspiration, paci-
ist, orator and preacher, to name a few.
Of all the possible descriptions and
titles that have been assigned to Dr.
King, history has proven that his lega-
cy endures in our collective American
imagination and our national politics
not because of what he was, or who he
was, but because of what he did. Dr.
King changed our society with action.
Soaring rhetoric may move our hearts
and imagination, but it is action that
translates our seemingly impossible
dreams into reality.
Dr. King’s all-too-short life was a
monumental one that moved our na-
tion to enact large-scale, course-cor-
recting policies like the Civil Rights
by
Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights
Act, and genuinely contemplate a
day when we would “transform the
jangling discords of our nation into a
beautiful symphony of brotherhood,”
but he departed from this earth with
uninished business.
Our nation has made undeniable
progress since Dr. King described his
corporate ofices, or even the White
House. While Dr. King would have
likely been proud to live in a country
that judged an African-American not
on the color of his skin, but the con-
tent of his character, and elected him
president, he would be disheartened
to witness the mounting rollbacks in
voting rights, disappointed to stand at
In his last State of the Union address
to Congress, President Barack Obama
acknowledged the necessity of every day
acts of courage and quiet citizenship to
move our nation closer to fulilling its
founding promise of life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness for all its people.
dream of an America set free from the
bondage of racial animosity, injustice
and economic inequality. Today, peo-
ple of color are achieving milestones
that would have been impossible with-
out the decades-long accumulation
of constant acts of courage to make
change happen.
But Dr. King did not dedicate himself
to a life of action only to create wealth
and opportunity for a privileged few,
to diversify the palette of America’s
the cusp of the ever-widening chasm of
economic inequality, and disillusioned
at the loss of Black lives at the hands
of law enforcement. Progress must not
grow into passivity. Complacency will
only serve to erode the gains our na-
tion have made and can make under the
constant vigilance and activism of its
citizenry.
In his last State of the Union address
to Congress, President Barack Obama
acknowledged the necessity of ev-
ery day acts of courage and quiet cit-
izenship to move our nation closer to
fulilling its founding promise of life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness for
all its people. “What I’m asking for is
hard. It’s easier to be cynical; to accept
that change isn’t possible, and politics
is hopeless, and to believe that our
voices and actions don’t matter. But if
we give up now, then we forsake a bet-
ter future,” he said.
That better future is what Dr. King
saw on the mountaintop. He did not
live to get there with us, but his clarion
call to justice lives on. We, as the heirs
of the change he sought, can make the
holiday named in his honor a more
meaningful one by engaging in civic,
community and service projects. We
can do what Dr. King did for a lifetime:
serving others. But this is about more
than a day. Full, unfettered access to
voting will not be restored in one day.
Police brutality in communities of col-
or will not end in one day. Economic
inequality will not be resolved in one
day. It will take days, years, decades
and perhaps generations, but if we are
wedded to the idea of a more perfect
union, it is imperative that we contin-
ue Dr. King’s long and worthy climb to
the mountaintop.
Marc H. Morial is president and
chief executive oficer of the National
Urban League.