Years ago I made a statement to my 8th graders that I feel sometimes like I'm "teaching" my students to dis-like white men. I would clarify that I do indeed love them as I married one and have two sons. They'd laugh at me. So to answer one of the questions in the chat today, I learned early to always end lessons with hope and progress, or it's just too painful to teach hour after hour, year after year.  How? I was always amazed when I asked students for examples of positive societal changes. Since they are young and mostly unjaded, they do provide so many improvements from the time we we discussing! My "go-to" line is we can be part of the problem or the solution. Which will you be? It seems to inspire hope, no matter how small or big your words or actions are. We have a role to play in life, and you get to choose how to live here in 2021.

Years ago I made a statement to my 8th graders that I feel sometimes like I'm "teaching" my students to dis-like white men. I would clarify that I do indeed love them as I married one and have two sons. They'd laugh at me. So to answer one of the questions in the chat today, I learned early to always end lessons with hope and progress, or it's just too painful to teach hour after hour, year after year.  How? I was always amazed when I asked students for examples of positive societal changes. Since they are young and mostly unjaded, they do provide so many improvements from the time we we discussing! My "go-to" line is we can be part of the problem or the solution. Which will you be? It seems to inspire hope, no matter how small or big your words or actions are. We have a role to play in life, and you get to choose how to live here in 2021.

julie Williams I agree that giving students a sense of hope that things can be different and that they can make part of that change is essential. It can be daunting, but one thing I like about the WHP is that it has stories of resistance. It folds in quite nicely with the idea of proximity. I recall the material on the Ghana and the slave trade as being particularly compelling. Part of that same material was how one enslaved African talked about how uncivilized the European enslavers were. It was really an eye-opener for everyone in class.