Wisconsin DPI Book Study Guide for We Want to Do More Than Survive

Created Feb. 6, 2024 by Tamara Mouw

Online Online Study Circle Questions: We Want to Do More Than Survive

June 18, July 2, July 16, and July 30, 2019

Facilitators: Bianca Williams-Griffin and Tamara Mouw

Date: June 18, 2019 from 3:00 - 4:00
Time	Activity	Person
3:00 - 3:105 mins	Welcome and Introduction of Facilitators
3:10 - 3:20	Orientation to Zoom and Agreements We’re proposing these agreements to support us in our online study with the goal that we can do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. From the Art of Conversation by the NEP, here are behaviors that help take conversation to a deeper realm: agreements We acknowledge one another as equals. We try to stay curious about each other. We recognize that we need each other’s help to become better listeners. We slow down so we have time to think and reflect. We remember that conversation is the natural way humans think together. We expect it to get messy sometimes.
3:20 - 3:35	Q1: Affective: Say your name and one thing that you found beautiful in the past 24 hours.
3:35 - 3:50	Q2: Imaginal: What is your hope from this study circle?
3:50 - 4:00	Closing: Next Steps Books: Who needs a book mailed to them? Send out a Google Survey with name and mailing address. Reading assignment for July 2, 2:30 - 4:00: Chapters 1 & 2 (1-41) Reading assignment for July 16, 2:30 - 4:00: Chapters 3-5 (42 - 123) Reading assignment for July 30, 2:30 - 4:00 Chapters 6 & 7 (124 - 162)

Date: July 2, 2019 from 2:30 - 4:00Reading assignment: Chapters 1 & 2 (1-41)
Time	Activity	Person
2:30 - 2:35 5 mins	Welcome Affective: Whip: What is one word that captures your thinking or feelings about Chapters 1 & 2? Imaginal: “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” - Maya Angelou
Estimate2:35 - 3:00	Q1: What initial thoughts surfaced while in Chapters 1 & 2 that challenged / confirmed / changed your own thinking?My initial thoughts if no one has any... Definition of Abolitionist Teaching: “Abolitionist teaching is the practice of working in solidarity with communities of color while drawing on the imagination,creativity, refusal, (re)membering, visionary thinking, healing, rebellious spirit,boldness, determination, and subversiveness of abolitionist to eradicate injustice in and outside of schools.” (P.1-2) Defining Subversiveness: weaken, destroy, underminehttps://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/subversiveness - hit the plus sign for synonyms and examples Diversity vs Inclusion, ““Diversity” is a catchall term that includes different types of people in terms of race, gender, sexuality, or religion within an organization, community, company, or school. “Intersectionality” is more than counting representation in a room or within a group; it is understanding community power, or its lack and ensuring inclusivity in social justice movements. It is a way to build alliances in organizing for social change..” (P. 3)
Estimate3:00 - 3:25	Q2: Chapter 1, P. 13 - “The Crisis in Black Education,” “The Problem with Black Boys,” and “Addressing a Poverty Mindset.” These types of workshops White-splain Black Folx’ challenges to White folx…” What does Dr. Love mean by this? Who facilitates/attends these workshops? Why?
Estimate3:25 - 3:50	Q3: “As a nation, we have been counting on education to solve the problem of unemployment, joblessness, and poverty for many years. But education did not cause these problems, and education cannot solve them.” Authentically react to this quote.
3:50 - 4:0010 mins	Closing: Next Steps Complete this pre-survey. Reading assignment for July 16, 2:30 - 4:00: Chapters 3-5 (42 - 123) Reading assignment for July 30, 2:30 - 4:00 Chapters 6 & 7 (124 - 162)

Date: July 16, 2019 from 2:30 - 4:00Reading assignment: Chapters 3 - 5 (42 - 123)
Time	Activity	Person
2:30 - 2:40 5 mins	Welcome Affective: Whip: What was something that gave you hope or inspired you as you read chapters 3-5. Imaginal: Bernice Johnson Reagon calls “the sweetness of the struggle” (54). Reframing the story.
Estimate2:40 - 3:05	Q1: Chapter 3: Mattering What were some of the government’s policies that branded and blamed dark folx (reboot of slavery)? And how are these impacting our communities today? Convict leasing 13th Amendment allowed those convicted of a crime to be subject to penal labor Black code laws (61) Moynihan Report (46) Economic downturn (59) Mandatory minimums (60) War on drugs / dark people (59-60) Privatizing prisons (60) “Three strikes rule” (60) Hillary Clinton calling young Black men “super predators” with “no conscience” and “no empathy” Jim Crow School desegregation Urban development or gentrification Mass incarceration Police brutality School rezoning and closings Redlining from 1934 to 1968 the Federal Housing Administration denied dark people home loans Globalization of the US manufacturing industry Vanishing public sector jobs The educational survival complex How are you teaching this history, if you are, to your students? Or what is the value in teaching this history to students? Let’s talk about bell hook’s idea of homeplace (63). A space where Blacks folx truly matter to each other, where souls are nurtured, comfored, and fed…. Where White power and the damges doen by it are healed by loving Blackness and restoring dignity… a site of resistanace… Understanding the gutting of dark communities' homeplaces is critical to a teacher’s analysis of the community in which he or she teaches. What spaces in your community are for our students of color? In your schools? Classrooms? If so, what makes them so? If not, how can we create homeplace in our spheres of influence?
Estimate3:05 - 3:30	Q2: Chapter 4: Grit, Zest, and Racism (The Hunger Games) Let’s talk about “character education” (70). “Character education is anti-Black and it has replaced civic education in our schools. Students no longer learn how to be informed and active citizens, which is key to democracy; instead, they learn now how to comply and recite affirmations about their grit.” How many of you are focusing on character education? What can be done to disrupt character education? Let’s talk about civics education (70). “A robust civics education should include discussions focused on current events, opportunities for students to participate in school governance, media literacy, and classroom instruction on government, history, law, economics, and geography.” (70). How many of you incorporate civics education into your instruction? How does this look? If not, how might you?
Estimate3:30 - 3:55	Q3: Chapter 5: Abolitionist Teaching, Freedom Dreaming, and Black Joy Ella Baker,”reduction of injustice is not the same as freedom.” (89) “Welcome Struggles,setbacks, and disagreements,...find beauty in the struggle. How the hell do you do that? In the first paragraph she says new 7 times, what do you get from that, how did the first paragraph affect your thoughts and beliefs? New laws do not stop us from tweaking the system to maintain the current status quo.
3:55 - 4:005 mins	Closing: Next Steps Reading assignment for July 30, 2:30 - 4:00 Chapters 6 & 7 (124 - 162) Be thinking about what our collective next step could be and what your next step will be.

Date: July 30, 2019 from 2:30 - 4:00Reading assignment:Chapters 6 & 7 (124 - 162)
Time	Activity	Person
2:30 - 2:45 15 mins	Welcome Affective: Whip: What was something that gave you hope or inspired you as you read chapters 6-7. Imaginal: “A child cannot be taught by anyone who despises him, and a child cannot afford to be fooled”(148). - James Baldwin
Estimate2:35 - 2:55	Q1: Teacher Education Gap (126): What would it mean for our schools to be completely integrated? What would it look like? What are the barriers that prevent it? How are schools working towards integration?
Estimate2:45 - 3:15	Q2: “Teacher education programs ask students to speak openly and honestly about race and racism without the students having any understanding about where they stand in relation to systems of privilege and oppression and how these systems function in their everyday lives. Whiteness ‘is a category of identity that is most useful when its very existence is denied.’ The invisibility of Whiteness and its extensive history of violence makes Whiteness a hard concept to grasp (130). How are you making Whiteness visible in your classrooms / schools?
	Q3: “Malcolm X once said, ‘The most disrespected woman in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman’” (140). How are our cultural messages impacting how we see and treat Black girls? Black female staff? What does your data show about how Black girls are treated in your schools? What policies are not supporting Black girls’ social-emotional learning? Tone policing Age compression Communication (raising hands and order vs being able to build on each other’s ideas, synchronization of voices, call and response)
	Q4: “The drawing by J. David Edwards demonstrates why we need theory. Without theory most of us, not just White people, are wearing what Edwards calls “White Vision Glasses.’ Teachers spirit-murder children every day through these glasses because their vision is imparierd by hate, racism, social bias, and White supremacy; they cannot see Black joy or Black humanity” (147-48).
Estimate3:15 - 3:35	Q4: What our we thinking about possible collective next steps and what might your next step be?
3:35 - 4:0025 mins	Closing: Next Steps Complete two surveys: 1) Post-survey and 2) Overall Survey One word whipshare about what you are thinking right now.