Journal of a Black Teacher

Editorial note: This opinion addresses disparities in public attention and institutional response. It does not suggest that nobody has worked to prevent urban gun violence or that Eden Prairie's response was inappropriate. The two victims in the October 2 shooting were young men from St. Paul, and neither attended the schools participating in the football game. The police investigation remains ongoing. By Group-think Logiz (Community Post)  October 6, 2026 Well, well, well. Apparently, Minnesota has discovered gun violence. How remarkable. How inspiring. How wonderfully convenient that this discovery occurred in Eden Prairie, where a high school homecoming football game was interrupted by gunfire, sending spectators scrambling for safety and reminding suburban Minnesota that bullets do not recognize property values, school district boundaries, or the carefully maintained illusion that serious violence happens somewhere else. On Friday, October 2, 2026, two young men, ages 17 and 1...

If the answer is yes, show us the data. Saint Paul Public Schools has approximately 33,000 students, and about 24% are Black. Yet the district's overall 2025 proficiency rates were only about  35% in reading and 27% in mathematics . More troubling, reporting on the district's 2025 MCA results shows that only  19% of Black students were proficient in reading and 11% were proficient in mathematics . That is not simply an achievement gap. That is an educational emergency.

By Don Allen I wrote the ‘ Theory of Corners ’ as a diagnostic tool. This is what it says about the video. Note: The Theory of Corners suggests that unless the underlying organizational "corner" — the specific institutional habit driving the poor outcomes — is dismantled, the cycle of "budget cuts" and "instability" (1:40-1:47) will likely persist despite the proposed structural shifts. Background The "Theory of Corners" developed by Dr. Don Allen is a diagnostic model designed to analyze high-functioning but low-outcome learning organizations . It serves as a framework for identifying why institutions, despite having resources and structure, may fail to meet their desired goals for students. Application Applying this lens to the Minneapolis Public Schools ( MPS ) transformation message (0:00-4:07), one could critique the district's current approach as follows: Findings Structural Inefficiency : Dr. Sayles-Adams notes that the district is...

Dr. Don Allen is an educator and administrator known for his work in curriculum development and instruction. In secondary education, his frameworks emphasize building strong study skills, time management, and systematic note-taking for high schoolers (Grades 9–12) to transition successfully into higher education and career paths. When implementing targeted note-taking instruction for grades 9 through 12, the focus shifts from simple compliance (copying words from the board) to active cognitive processing. Core Note-Taking Methodologies for Grades 9–12 High school curriculum requirements demand that students choose a system matching the structure of their subject matter: The Cornell Method : The gold standard for high school lectures and dual-enrollment prep. Students split the page into a note-taking column, a left-hand "cue" or question column, and a bottom summary block. The Outlining Method : Best for highly structured, linear subjects (e.g., History or Literature). It te...

Opinion from Our Black News (2026) For more than a year, activists have treated Target's decision to pull back from its formal DEI commitments as if the disappearance of the letters  D-E-I  automatically meant the destruction of economic opportunity for Black America. That argument is emotionally powerful. It is also too simplistic. Here is the uncomfortable question Black America should have asked long before the 2025–2026 protests:  What did corporate DEI actually deliver to Black men, Black women, Hispanic men and women, and Asian workers? The answer, based on the available employment data, is not nearly as flattering as the corporate press releases. The evidence does  not  support the absolute claim that DEI "only helped white women." But the data do support a more defensible—and more important—argument:  the largest and clearest gains in corporate advancement have often gone to women who were already relatively well positioned, while Black and Hispanic...

  Disclaimer :  There is credible historical scholarship documenting   at least one unusually disturbing case of literal European cannibalism involving an enslaved African during the Atlantic slave trade , as well as substantial evidence of Europeans exploiting, dissecting, consuming, and commodifying Black bodies in other ways. However, it would be historically inaccurate to claim that Europeans routinely ate enslaved Africans. The strongest article is therefore one that distinguishes   documented literal cannibalism from the broader history of bodily exploitation . By Niggle - the podcast  There are some chapters of history so disturbing that people would rather dismiss them than examine the evidence. The history of European slavery in Africa and the Atlantic is filled with such chapters. Among the most horrifying is the historical evidence concerning Europeans and the literal consumption of African bodies. But this subject demands something more than sensatio...