Today was an early release for students so that teachers might spend the afternoon in professional learning sessions. This year, our system has changed the structure of our PD by centrally offering dozens of opportunities so that educators can select topics that meet our needs at the moment.
In the morning, we took our students to the music assembly, where the band, orchestra, and chorus performed abbreviated versions of their winter concerts. Later, Heidi and I attended a showing of the first episode of the documentary series America to Me, which follows several students of color for a year at Oak Park River Forest High School, one of the Chicago suburbs most progressive schools. The demographics of OPRF are notably similar to our own system, and so the experience of these kids was pretty close to home.
Following the film, the group split into small discussion groups. The first question was What is the difference between desegregation and integration? Our group agreed that desegregation is simply removing a separation between two factions, but integration should entail creating a new whole.
The follow-up question was Where is OPRF and where are we in that pursuit? and we all agreed there is still a lot of work to be done in both places before people of all races share collective ownership of our country and all its opportunities.
I know we have a long way to go, but this morning, at the concert, I sat with a lump in my throat marveling at the miracle of 100 kids from 6 continents raising their voices as one in incredibly moving renditions of A Million Dreams from The Greatest Showman and One Day from MLK.
