SojoMail - How to reopen schools

Five Principles That Must Guide School Reopenings Nicole Baker Fulgham Hybrid model. Synchronous learning. Pandemic pod. These words have quickly become the new normal when parents talk about school this fall. Every school district is scrambling to figure out how to deliver quality instruction while keeping students, families, and educators safe from COVID-19. They face a dizzying array of conflicting choices and, maddeningly, there are no simple solutions. The entire schooling dilemma is like a proverbial house of cards: We gently pull out a single card and the entire creation collapses. Nationwide school closures have not only disrupted millions of lives, they have further entrenched long-standing disparities in our public school system. Students who are already vulnerable are at even greater risk. Policymakers, educators, families, and students face impossible choices as our nation balances the urgent need to protect people from a deadly pandemic with the responsibility to deliver on the promise of a high-quality education for all. Like so many of us, my deep Christian faith drives the way I inherently view inequality — especially the inequities in public education. I grew up in Detroit and saw disparities outside my front door and throughout my community. As a Black girl and teenager I was acutely aware that the kids in my neighborhood weren’t getting the same education that my white suburban friends received. As my faith became more important to me, I looked for ways to integrate my core Christian beliefs with the inequities that most pained me. I still view education disparities as inherently un-Christlike. If we truly believe that all children are made in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:27), then people of faith should ensure that our schools allow all students to flourish — especially in times of unfathomable national crisis. READ THE FULL ARTICLE Forward Share ADVERTISEMENT   Also from sojo.net This Gets Worse: What Happens If Congress Fails to Act on Pandemic Relief (by Adam R. Taylor) It is reckless that provisions of the CARES Act were allowed to lapse in the first place. Better For Whom? The Problem With Increased Taxpayer Funding for Christian Schools (by Allie Blosser) I spent a year collecting ethnographic data in a predominantly white, conservative, Christian K-12 school. It troubled me that my tax dollars were being used to support the kinds of teaching and discriminatory admissions practices I witnessed. Raising Children for a Future We Can't Quite Imagine (by Rachel B. Sturges) What will anthropologists say when they study this epoch? ADVERTISEMENT   From the Magazine Why Conservatives Are Turning Against Capital Punishment (by Heather Beaudoin) The death penalty does not align with values like the sanctity of human life, individual liberty, and limited government. ADVERTISEMENTS RFP - Freelance Justice Mobilizing Content Creator World Renew is a Christian organization on a mission! We’re looking for a Consultant to support the goals of our Constituent Justice Mobilizing Program, supporting US churches in their call to advocate for Biblical justice. The consultant will mobilize grassroots participants to educate, advocate, and share resources. The Prelude of Divine Wisdom in the Art of Aphorism Aphorisms can be seen as an art: making the best connection between existing knowledge so as to reveal some truth through the shortest expression. In his book The Prelude of Divine Wisdom in the Art of Aphorism, Georgian philosopher Zura Shiolashvili dismantles Nietzsche’s Christian critique by drawing us back to divine beauty.