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Jessica Lander, a high school teacher and 2015 Harvard Graduate School of Education alum, is blogging for Usable Knowledge about what happens when research ideas, policy initiatives, and best practices meet the real world. (Read previous posts in her Usable Knowledge series.) Jessica also writes about education for the Boston Globe and other outlets. Follow her on Twitter at@jessica_lander.
As an ELL teacher working in one of the most diverse cities in Massachusetts, I teach students who have come here from across the globe. They have fled wars in Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They have grown up in refugee camps in Thailand and escaped violence in El Salvador. They have walked alone and on foot across many lands to reach ours.
My students carry with them their resilience, passions, and optimism. They see themselves as Americans and are determined to contribute to their community. Many have already begun this important work — starting school mentoring programs, writing op-eds on community issues, and proposing policy to support the academic futures of their peers.
The last month has been difficult for my students and for me, as it likely has been for so many students and teachers across the country. The actions and rhetoric of the new administration, and particularly President Trump’s recent executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries, threatens the futures and success of my students.
I have many students from among the seven banned countries, and many more Muslim students from other countries. Common to all my students, no matter their birthplace, their religion, their ethnicity, is the fear that they will be targeted next.
In class last week, I gave my students the opportunity to share their thoughts. Heads down, many wrote feverishly. Others stared off into the distance, “How do I get it all down on paper?” one boy asked, “I just have so much I am feeling.”
What they wrote was heartbreaking.
“Will I be able to ever see my father?” “My parents are from Colombia, but will the government come after them next?” “Why are they targeting my Muslim friends?” And from one 18-year-old Muslim girl: “I don’t understand why Americans hate me.”
How can we, as teachers, respond in a way that supports and protects our students? Here are some initial ideas:
In these uncertain times, I find that my students’ optimism and drive to do good are my greatest sources of inspiration. They are unwaveringly committed to strengthening our communities and our country. As teachers we have the honor — and the responsibility — to ensure that they have the best chance to do this.
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