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Peter and colleagues: Thank you for initiating this important discussion. So many fine insights and ideas have been shared. I humbly offer the following:

Bigotry and discrimination are deeply rooted in the very fabric of social systems. We have all been socialized within systems that are plagued by classism, racism, sexism, and a host of other isms, and we have internalized many of these isms.

Audre Lorde summarizes Paulo Freire’s apt words from Pedagogy of the Oppressed: “the true focus of revolutionary change is never merely the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but that piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us, and which knows only the oppressors' tactics, the op¬pressors' relationships.”

Could this “piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us” be one of the key obstacles to reducing discrimination in education?

So, in order to reduce discrimination in education and to do this in a thoughtful and sustained manner, we would need to overhaul the entire system—and transform ourselves even as we transform the system.

I have worked within academe as an educator and as an educational administrator. I now work with young people who have been marginalized because of race, class, or other issues and we have had several conversations about the urgent need for transforming the content and process of education. The nature and tone of the conversations in academe and among my youth are very different. I don’t doubt that the conversations in academe are spurred by sincere interest and guided by careful study. Still, missing from these conversations are the voices of those students who are misunderstood and mistreated. The insights and feelings shared by some of our local students and their parents/guardians are rooted in experience, observation, and a critical understanding of crucial issues that decision makers have often overlooked. Our youth point to how that “piece of the oppressor which is planted deep within each of us” needs to be uncovered and dealt with and they acknowledge that it will be very difficult for those in power to confront their own prejudices and give up/share some of that power.

• As a first step, can we engage in honest discussions about where and how we acquire our own prejudiced attitudes and behaviors and how these influence how we frame/reframe the very questions in consideration?
• How can high ranking educational officials take stock of their own prejudices and how these might influence their decisions about the actual content and process of education?
• Could we include a similar component as an integral part of teacher education for aspiring teachers and professional development for current educators, legal officers, legislators, and administrators?
• How can we provide support systems as students, teachers, legal officers, legislators, and others struggle through these difficult but necessary retrospective journeys?
• How can we bring students, especially those from marginalized groups, to these discussions and invite them to share insights and strategies for change. How can we ensure that these students share their ideas in the methods and modes that they are most comfortable with?
• Would it be possible to invite students to help with the creation of a set of courses that include socially responsible citizenry, conflict management, peaceful negotiation, unlearning bigotry, community service, and peer tutoring (and many more subject areas) as part of the core curriculum for students of all ages—starting in pre-school?
• How can we ensure that all students are engaged in a process of examining, critiquing, shaping, and owning their educational experiences?

These will be difficult dialogues and the action plans that ensue will compel us to extricate ourselves from old ways of thinking and doing but as another wise educator reminds us,

“Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety”. James Baldwin

Respectfully,
Lorna Gonsalves