Do we pre-judge each other by our names? Yes, we do. Or at least I do. As a new topic in this blog series as I look at my own racial prejudices (my pre-judging), I've been considering names. Does my racism start when I learn someone's name? What if I were the person who does … Continue reading Considering My Own Racism: What’s in a name?
I think there was an unwritten rule: Do business with people of your own race.
I never wondered who these enslaved people were and what their lives were like. They were just a part of the church and community history, like the fingerprints in the church bricks.
This is the day we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. here in the United States, so it seems an appropriate time for me to get back to my racism series. I taught at a new high school in Year Five of my 23-year high school teaching career. This school was a consolidation of two … Continue reading Considering My Own Racism: The biggest lesson I learned from some of my high school students
Many of you know by now that each new year I let a word choose me -- as suggested by the Abbey of the Arts: "give me a word" we ask – something to nourish me, challenge me, a word I can wrestle with and grow into. The word which chooses us has the potential … Continue reading My Word for 2019
Many of you know that each year around January 1st I choose a word for my year. I was inspired by the Abbey of the Arts and the process suggested here. A former student who has made it a practice to choose a word for her year in January asked via Facebook message if I … Continue reading Floating to find a word for my new decade
This week my life's clock will tick into a new decade. I'll be 60. No longer can I try to claim that I'm "middle aged." I'm obviously much closer to the end than the middle. So what have I learned in these 60 years? What would I tell my younger self to help make her … Continue reading At 60: Six things I’d tell my younger self
