Where are all the white kids?
I was so grateful to be a part of the Festival of Faiths in Louisville and give this talk as part of an amazing crew of panelists last fall. I thought I’d share it with you as we head another school year soon.
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Thanks so much for this. This came--amazingly--right when I was looking at a photo my daughter's K teacher sent us of her class and saying the exact same question out loud. Perfect timing to send along a reminder of the joy and the hope and the "why" of integrating our kids!
Courtney- I so appreciate your candor and rigor. It has been a minute since I read Learning in Public (which I loved ❤️ because it challenged me in good ways).
Watching this talk I was struck by several things in particular in connection to my own work as an educator and writer:
1) The research on school integration that you reference sounds robust, compelling, and clear. Likewise, the research linking nature-based learning or human-nature connections more generally to a raft of benefits for learners and educators is robust, compelling, and clear.
2) Along the lines of integration, I think you might be interested to know that Nature-based learning is showing promise as an equigenic (narrowing the achievement gap. Y disproportionately positively impacting the students on the margins) education innovation
https://www.childrenandnature.org/resources/the-equigenic-effect-how-nature-access-can-level-the-playing-field-for-children/
3) In the face of mountains of data about a common sense education solution, it is your personal story that carries the day. Thank you and your daughters for sharing your story with vulnerability.
4) As a both/and add-on to your data & story awesomeness, I wonder how you and your clear voice - and the research on integration- could be featured on @emily oster’s Parent Data substack? (Maybe this magic has already happened...apologies if I’ve missed it)
Thank you!