Why teacher-activists should be welcomed in U.S. classrooms, not feared and criminalized

TEACHER-ACTIVISTS INFUSE social justice into their classrooms, and in today’s divisive political times, they are wrongly penalized, criminalized, and sent packing from the classroom. As a lifelong educator, I assure you that teacher-activists empower their students to create a more equitable world. Through my teacher-activism, I centered equity and advocacy in every lesson. For instance, when we learned about food deserts, I empowered my students to write letters to grocery stores pushing to revitalize those communities. When teaching about the founding fathers of our country, I used an iceberg graphic to enlighten students about the history both above and below the surface. While I did my activism hidden in the shadows of character-building within my first-grade classroom scot-free, many teacher-activists today are in danger of losing their jobs or even serving jail time and require real protection. If not, we will lose a generation of teacher-activists and our children will pay the price.

In teacher-activist classrooms, advocacy, integrity, and equity matter just as much as reading, writing, and math. Teacher-activism encourages students to look at the world around them with a holistic view of history and own their power to speak up for equity in every space.