From “Eliza Harris” by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper With her step on the ice, and her arm on her child, The danger was fearful, the pathway was wild; But, aided by Heaven, she gained a free shore, Where the friends of humanity open’d their door. From Laura Tohe’s “Introduction: Letter to General Pratt” “Your …
Author: Sarah Ruffing Robbins
Celebrating an Archive of Students’ Writing to Learn
I’d like to celebrate an archive of learning emerging from an energizing class I taught in spring 2018. I wish I could open up and read entries from the digital folders where I’ve filed their exciting texts. You’d find distinctive voices. Analyses grounded in thoughtful interviews and site visits. Careful re-readings of literary texts to …
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“Americans” Exhibit at the NMAI
“Americans.” This single-word naming of a new exhibit at the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) tellingly links up with a crucial claim staked out both by the museum’s very presence on the National Mall and by this exhibition. Specifically, the NMAI rightfully asserts, Native Americans are indeed “Americans,” people whose lives and social …
What Can White Teachers Do to Support Black History Month?
The posters for special events tied to Black History Month start appearing several weeks ahead, and I mark my personal calendar. I try out multiple tactics for encouraging my students—most of them white—to attend. But I’m also seeking ways to support learning about Black history and culture at my predominantly white institution (or, in shorthand, …
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Gender Trouble in the High School Hallway and in Viral Web Spaces: Stage West’s New Production in Fort Worth, TX
What appealed to me about Stage West’s current offering of Like a Billion Likes wasn’t only the production’s biting critique of social media’s troubling influence on teenagers’ lives today. Certainly, that dimension of Erik Forrest Jackson’s script is both engaging and timely. For me, however, what pushes this inventive production into more complex territory is …
December Journeys & a 2018 Resolution: Looking Out for Our Fellow Travelers
Giving directions to two French tourists as they puzzled over English-only signs to a car rental center. Lifting bags off the luggage carrousel for a young mom, traveling alone with her baby. Giving up a seat on the airport monorail to an exhausted-looking fellow rider. Holding the elevator door open and calling out a jovial …
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Listening to the Code Talkers: Whose Story-telling? Whose Artifacts? Whose Spaces?
I’m listening to the Code Talkers. They tell a story about America that I want to hear. "My name is Peter MacDonald," said a righteously proud, now ninety-year-old leader of "the thirteen surviving Navajo Code Talkers" at the White House recently. In a ceremony that should have focused on the pivotal contributions of these Diné/Navajo …
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