‘Did You Grow Up Around Black People?’ | EduShyster

‘Did You Grow Up Around Black People?’ | EduShyster:

‘Did You Grow Up Around Black People?’

 My year working for “America’s Most Trusted Educator”

By Ebony Murphy-Root

Folks in the national media are just beginning to take note of Dr. Steve Perry’s colorfully threatening metaphors and heated ‘no excuses’ rhetoric, but during my year as a teacher at Capital Prep, the school Perry runs in Hartford, CT, I had some of them directed squarely at me.

I first heard of Dr. Steve Perry back in 2010 on the Black in America special hosted by Soledad O’Brien. I agreed with his message that urban kids of color deserved schools as great as the ones in the affluent suburbs. I believe deep thinking and experiential learning are critical to developing active citizens in a democracy. I believe innovative classrooms with skilled teachers are crucial to the kind of society where all kids can thrive.

At the time I was teaching middle school English at a progressive grade 6-12 prep school in Hartford. I also coached lacrosse and served as an advisor to a small group of students, trying my best to become the consummate prep school ‘triple threat.’ I’d recently completed my master’s in curriculum and instruction and was happy in my position on a beautiful campus with warm, encouraging colleagues, and wonderfully quirky students. I myself attended a girls’ school in Fairfield County, CT, for six years and that experience 

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