Fate is kind. Until she's not. Not sure why this book caught my eye in the "free books" rack at the bookstore, but it did, and the back cover was enough to make me take it home. It turns out to be on exactly the same educational thread that has been consuming my professional thoughts lately: what does culturally responsive education really look like? How can we learn from the sins of the Carlisle School, and empower BIPOC to create equity and justice?
Ewing's analysis of the issues surrounding the American education system is insightful, and laid out in a clear, engaging way that illustrates how American education was designed to do different things for different people. For white people, it was designed to create deep thinking and prosperous leaders. For Black students, the goal was explicitly from the very foundation to inculcate submission and control. The schools created for Native populations were even more insidious: their stated goal was utter erasure of Native identity and culture. In short, the American education system is not broken; it is functioning exactly as intended.
Her solution is unique among the many similar books I've read recently. She does not propose lessons, activities, etc. to increase equity. Her solution is not pedagogical at all. "I humbly offer that braiding allows us a metaphor to think about a different mode of teaching and learning" (265). This is not only a reference to the importance of hair in BIPOC culture. It is a deeper symbol of the epistemologies of those cultures. Knowledge is communal and inextricable from care, and not only in BIPOC cultures is this true. It was true for all people before the original sins of hierarchy, oppression, and privilege upon which this country and many others were built. Getting back to that center is a step on the road to healing for all students, regardless of background.
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