I love being a mentor but I am uneasy about the slide into a one-way, top-down notion of authority. I like the idea of friends as co-mentors, mutual learning, an egalitarian, feminist approach. It’s true that a mentor with more experience in a given context can de-mystify and foster access, and that’s important. A mentor […]
What is Language Justice?
My grandmother was born on the Lower East Side of New York City, following the emigration of her parents, my great grandparents, from Russia. Their only child, she often told the story of the rabbi in their town telling her father he could annul the marriage if he wished “because her mother was barren.” Her […]
Starting from a Different Place?
Last Friday, a third grader read an epic comic in our Zoom group. Trying to follow without easy access to the images, I asked a follow-up about one of the characters: “Is he the hero?” “Oh, yes,” the reader answered, “he has to bring balance to the world.” What an amazing definition of the hero! […]
What Does Antiracist Literacy Do?
It’s easy to assume that literacy means the ability to read and write words in a specific language. But in this case, common sense is not really practical. A more useful definition? Literacy means the capacity to use knowledge and skills to interpret (read) situations and participate in ways that make sense to others who […]