Row Your Boat

I went to a new employee training for the entire school district yesterday. It was good: it focused almost entirely on race and racial equity.
Race was meant, the presenters said, to represent all the many other challenges students face, like disability, sexuality & gender, etc.
"A rising tide lifts all boats", they said.

Well, I get the theory, but DO all other social inequalities intersect with race?
Are they all boats?
Um. Not necessarily.

Still, I was glad to see race fore-fronted. It's great that the schools are taking a stance with all incoming staff, from building maintenance to administrators.

The one presentation that wasn't specifically about race--though it definitely intersects, and they showed how--was on Homeless and Highly Mobile students.
That was really useful to me--I didn't even know that term "highly mobile". It's not only moving a lot, it may be sleeping on different couches, staying with relatives and friends.
I'm already seeing students dealing with that, and I don't know the systems.

But yes---race is CODE RED:
the rotting bodies in our closet--oozing out, poisoning the waters, or building up gases to burn the whole place down. 
I saw it at the thrift store--how it comes with its goons, poverty and ignorance, and rots away the floorboards of lives, of society.

But I wish the presenters had given just a few minutes to the orange and yellow codes too.
I will fill out the feedback form and suggest they give a few minutes to, say––special ed.
That it was only included as one word on a list, with absolutely no further mention, matches what my coworkers say:
"No one thinks of these kids."

Autism is historically under- or mis-diagnosed in BIPOC children, but the students I work with are all races and different ethnicities.

A teacher told me that a few years ago, the parent of one of his former autistic students had had a hard time dealing with the student's behaviors.
They called the police, and guess who showed up?
Derek Chauvin--the guy who would later murder George Floyd.
Chauvin proceeded to get this former student on the ground, where he knelt on his neck... His signature move. 
"It wasn't race though", the teacher said. "This student was white."

A Black woman educator who was nodding along to the presentations said to me at break that she sees her students facing challenges around gender every day, and she wanted to talk about that.
How to respond to things like my coworker complaining about "they" being plural?

I left wanting to learn more about the challenges my students face.
(And, lordy, I already see that some of them face them all.)
I think I'll have to row that boat myself.

I found a program at a local private university to earn an Autism Spectrum Disorder certificate:
"Gain the expertise to engage ASD learners in school, clinic, community, and home settings".

It's not cheap though: $382 per credit. But maybe I could take a class or two--maybe this summer...

• SPED 7100: ASD: Introduction and Overview (2 credits)
• SPED 7101: Proactive Behavior Management (2 credits)
  

4 credits x $382 = $1528.
Yikes!
I will ask about tuition reimbursement--or if the school has some other education options.
____________________

So, while I think the training should have included a quick round-up of other challenges, I do think it's smart to focus on race.
Society-- us--should choose to foot that old bill, voluntarily.

Continuing to let the problem rack up charges is not a smart policy.
Choose positive change.
Choose education!

And I did leave feeling supported. It was mentioned that the union had fought specifically for special-ed assistants to get a substantial raise a couple years ago, when teachers went on strike.
"We need to recruit, support, and retain you folks who are SEAs."

And that's why I earn a decent wage, and will get unemployment and can take classes this summer.
I'm tempted to go volunteer out of town, but I really want more to build connections with people HERE.