About RelevéThis blog is a place for me to express my thoughts on education, specifically pertaining to urban public schools.
I may rant. I may swear. I will post relevant info, research, links, memes, pictures, etc. I promise to make it as informative as possible. I will try to keep it as honest and trustworthy as I can. I would like this blog to be a go-to place for other educators to come when they need reliable information to support their own research, or if they have a hunch but need info to back it up. Know this: I am, and always have been, about the kids first. I work tirelessly for my students. It is out of their extreme need for a better situation that I lose sleep. It is out of the desperate need to stop lives from being ruined by the thousands each year that I continue to speak and write and work. |
Who I am |
I am Jadyn Harris. I live in Champaign, IL, and am a doctoral student in education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. I work at UIUC as a graduate teaching assistant, teaching two courses on social justice, and a new course on integrating the arts in the elementary school classroom, for which I co-wrote the curriculum.
My areas of study are: Critical Race Theory, Social-Emotional Learning, and arts integration, as all three intertwine in urban public education. More on that coming in tabs. I have 10+ years experience as a curriculum writer (EC-12, arts & academic), arts instructional coach, and Orff-certified elementary music teacher. I am owned by two cats - Boo & Tiki - and two dogs - Howler & Lucy. I am a lesbian. I am single and I am not dating and don't really want to.
Black Lives Matter. I believe that if you must respond to that statement forcefully with "ALL LIVES MATTER," then you are grossly missing the point that in this country, clearly all lives do not matter equally, and that is why some people have felt it necessary to point out that Black Lives Matter. It's simply and purely all there is to that, and if you feel the need to make more out of it, you should do some long hard thinking. No, do some more long hard thinking. How is this relevant to education? It's incredibly relevant to education. Read my blog to find out more. There is a category titled Critical Race Theory, which will be populated soon. In case you haven't yet gathered, I am very open and honest. Sometimes uncomfortably so. |
My history |
I was born in Glendale, California but was soon moved as an infant back to the Bay Area, where my parents grew up. I say I'm from San Francisco, but I was really raised in Marin County, which is across the Golden Gate Bridge from the City. I left Marin when I was 19, after growing extremely frustrated with what I learned later was "de facto segregation" there.
In Marin, when I was growing up, all the Hispanics lived in the Canal District in San Rafael, and all the Blacks lived in Marin City. I mean, not all of them, I suppose, but that's what pretty much everyone I knew said. And white people almost never ventured into those areas. This was understood. Yet, I was raised to accept and love everyone as they were, no matter what they looked like or where they came from. This was in direct contradiction to my surroundings. And let me tell you, Marin is BEAUTIFUL. So it's kind of easy to forget sometimes that you're surrounded by white people, because you're distracted by mountains and oceans and beaches and bays and hills and fog and...and...and...except there are a LOT OF WHITE PEOPLE. And where are all the Black people? Working as baggers at Safeway. Or in the back at that restaurant. With the Hispanic people. And again, it's not ALL of them. But as you get older, it becomes hard not to notice that it's a large percentage. If you're the "noticing type." And I was the noticing type. And I must disclaim, this was back in the 80s and 90s. Maybe it's changed...? Then one day, I was reading the paper (yes, the actual paper), and there was an article about how a youth center was relocating for a THIRD time, because the big scary teenagers were frightening the people at the mall by - GASP - hanging around outside the youth center! Such a nuisance! So the youth center was once again packing its bags and trying to find yet a fourth location. I was incensed. Didn't these people understand that these kids needed this place?? Did they NOT GET that THIS was the alternative to DRUGS or hanging out on the street? What the fuck was wrong with these morons? (FYI, you might encounter the occasional curse word on this blog. Apologies...) I decided Marin was not the place for me anymore, and I moved to San Francisco and started attending San Francisco State University. Now, you may think I would have gotten into education then. But no, I actually had no idea I wanted to be a teacher. I decided to study music, convinced I was going to be a singing sensation. 11 years later, I was living in Texas. I had a music degree from SFSU but was a graphic designer with carpal tunnel and had to change jobs, and THEN decided to be a music teacher. Fast forward five years from there...I had grown tired of seeing children's lives being literally ruined by months upon years of testing (and practicing testing), with virtually no creative outlets, and no real practical skills. I went back to California on vacation and got a tour of Google, and I was so impressed with what I saw, that I wanted to share it with my students when I returned to Dallas! But when school resumed to a new round of testing and I realized that these children were not being prepared for the creative demands of places like Google, I was devastated. I decided to become part of the solution. I quit and went back to school. In the process, the Relevé blog was born. I am still a work in progress. But I am growing, Ideas are forming. They are taking shape. Soon...soon, my friends. Join me in discussion, won't you? |