Level Up

As you may have noticed dear readers, I have not been blogging with the consistency that I used to have. I can easily blame it on my tablet habit. One particular game has a feature that after I win the first game, I get a boost for the following game. When I win again, I get two boosts. Soon after winning several games in a row, it becomes very easy to beat the next level. After a while, I forget about all of the helps I have and begin to expect that this level of support is normal. When I finally lose a game, I realize how wrong I was.

This often happens in our schools. If you were similar to me when you entered school for the first time you had many “boosts” to help you succeed in school. I was a white middle-class girl with educator parents. My world prepared me for how school works. My school was designed for students like me.

Luis Cruz described this situation in this way. We have some students who come to school already on third base while some students have not even made it to the baseball field or know that we are playing baseball. The reality is that all of our students need to end up at home base.

Some questions come to mind as I think about our schools.  Who are schools designed for? Do we treat the student who is on third base as if they hit a triple or do we acknowledge their privilege that got them there?

Personally, I believe we should work together as a team of educators to help every student get to home base. This will require us to set aside our previous experiences as students. It is hard work, but it is right and just work of schools.