DEAR STUDENTS, NOW THAT THE 2020 SCHOOL YEAR KICKED OFF, PLEASE HELP US FIND OUR WAY
To the Tremendous Energy at the Start of an Unprecedented School Year
Growing up, I attended a small Catholic grade school in East Camden. We were a small community, but a community nonetheless. At the start of every school year, I could depend on seeing the same familiar faces; whether I cared for some of those faces or not is another story. But I digress.
Two things made our school uniquely different in my adolescent view. First, we were taught Catholicism; it was core content. However, it made for interesting conversations with the elders of my Black Baptist Church-going family. Second was that white kids didn’t attend our school; our school was an amalgam of Latinx and Black kids with mostly, if not only, white teachers and administrators.
It wasn’t the same for high school.
I attended a Catholic high school and while I was sadly accustom to learning from all white teachers, it was the first time that I would share classroom space with white kids. Although I had all white teachers in grade school, our student body gave me a level of comfort; we and our families were the CONTINUE READING: Dear Students, Now That The 2020 School Year Kicked Off, Please Help Us Find Our Way - Philly's 7th Ward