Journal of a Black Teacher

January 11, 2023 My institution, Hamline University, a small liberal arts college located in St Paul, Minnesota, has been in the news lately. The New York Times ran an article leading with the headline, “Prophet Image Shown in Class, Fraying the Campus.” The article reports on an incident that occurred on our campus in October, where an adjunct instructor, teaching a class in art history, showed an image of the prophet Muhammad to a class attended by a number of Muslim students. And when a Muslim student objected to its showing, to quote the Times, the adjunct “lost her job.” Various so-called stakeholders interpreted the incident, as reported in various media, as one of “academic freedom.” The Times went so far as to cite PEN America’s claim that what was happening on our campus was one of the “most egregious violations of academic freedom” it had ever encountered. It begs the question, “How?” Because Hamline University is now under attack from forces outside our campus, I am taking t

  How can understanding the “continuum” be helpful to planning Culturally Responsive work with individuals within your organization? When I opened up chapter five to start reading, the pull-quote by Ellis Cose from his book, The Rage of a Privileged Class has me rethinking everything, and I cannot move past it; he wrote, “If we tell ourselves that the only problem is hate, we avoid facing the reality that it is mostly nice, non-hating people who perpetuate racial inequality”  (Cose 1998, p. 20). In my organization, as well as in the state of Minnesota, we know the ‘nice’ people are at the center of some of the most horrific, disabling, and learning-killing proposals and policies from the Minnesota Department of Education granting over $245 million to a non-existent agency for feeding children and families during the 202o COVID-19 quarantine, to its lack of diversity, inclusion, and color in the agencies upper leadership . These ‘nice’ people make sure the status quo is never disrupted

COMPETENCY ACTIVITY Form GED 8150: Initial Leadership Assessment Name : Don Allen Term : Spring 2022 Identify the area of your ICA where you identified a need to gain more exposure and growth through experiences, skill or knowledge development, or by opportunities for observation.  (Include both the competency area and the indicator/sub-competency or competencies. Policy and Law 1. Understand and implement policy to meet local, state, and federal requirements and constitutional provisions,standards, and regulatory applications to promote student success; 2 . Recognize and apply standards of care involving civil and criminal liability for negligence, harassment, and intentional torts; 3. Demonstrate an understanding of state, federal, and case law, and rules and regulations governing general education, special education, and community education. Fiscal Management 1. Demonstrate knowledge of factors that affect school finance, including sources of revenue; expenditure classificatio

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