“As we consider classrooms today, educators must be aware that previous social conditioning isn’t just a thing of the past but still manifests today. If a society tells children they aren’t good enough through television, songs, cartoons, or other forms of media, they may still think they aren’t capable of the intellectualism I am describing in the book. Additionally, this is exacerbated when teacher education programs and K-12 classrooms do not explicitly teach Black and Brown excellence. And I’m not just talking about teaching this history during one month of the school year–this excellence needs to be embedded in the culture and fabric of the school. Culture, race, and cultural responsiveness cannot be packaged in a program or restricted time frame….”
Excerpted from: Muhammad, Dr. Gholdy. Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. New York: Scholastic, 2020.