Unfortunately, this was from the library, and it was published the traditional way... 🫠

As we move in these uncertain times, I highly recommend reading both of these books. It doesn't matter if your student population is mostly white. The framework is good for them, too. Racism hurts us all, not just the ones that it's intended to hurt.

Which brings me back to Cultivating Genius. This is an equity framework that promotes four learning pursuits designed to elevate our students and recognize the genius that lies in them, especially our Black students. Dr. Muhammad's follow-up, Unearthing Joy, adds joy as another learning pursuit.

Think about African American English, particularly AAVE. A lot, if not all, of the "slang" coming out of social media, are words that were used in AAE and are only popularized and trendy when non-Black people are using it. But when Black people use AAE or AAVE, they are viewed as ignorant.

This is also how they resist. They KNOW that they are smart. Smarter, even. They've figured out methods of surviving that their captors don't know about. They've created their own language, with its own grammatical structure, that they use around their captors

In the book, James, the title character and his fellow enslaved captives have to hide their true genius and intelligence around their captors. They speak in a language that is expected of them because if they were to reveal their true selves, it would be their deaths. This is how they to survive

We see this time & time again. Oppressors create an environment where their victims have to struggle for survival and then turn around create a narrative of their victims' ignorance, dirtiness, and general lack of "civilization", providing further justification for the oppression. But, I digress

Especially since Black history IS American history. Not only that, but by creating a system that is designed for only a few to succeed, we have also created a story of how our Black students are "failing" because they struggle to fit in the molds that society has created without acknowledging them

I had to puzzle over this because Dr. Muhammad's book is written to challenge and encourage educators on how we perceive our students, especially our Black students, and the disservice that our current education system does to everyone one of them by failing to teach Black history

Well, I guess I'm adding this to my tbr list.