When I discussed James Baldwin's, A Talk to Teachers, with my partner, I told him the date it was written (1963) and he sarcastically said “Oh that’s relevant”. What is disappointing about today's society is that it is. This open letter to teachers from 1963 is still extremely relevant in 2021. The fact that I did not start the process of unlearning the twisted and racist history I was taught in school until I was 25 is sickening. It took massive public uproars in 2020 for me to question my so-called reality that I grew up in in the white suburbs of Massachusetts where I was often told that we didn’t have a problem with racism in our area. This lack of awareness that I was surrounded by my entire youth only perpetuated the problem in our area. Most residents blissfully turned a blind-eye to the fact that our town kept the cost of living higher to keep certain people out, while being told not to spend much time in the more diverse towns that surrounded us. The society that my hometown is breeding is exactly what Baldwin brings up in this article, that what society actually wants are citizens who will simply obey and follow without question. That is what we were doing and I so vividly remember living that!
In 1963, James Baldwin called for public uproar to change society and in 2020 we finally started to fulfill this request. I know that my personal revelation and unlearning coincided with the first Black Lives Matter demonstrations of 2020. In the following months I started to educate myself on everything I had missed out on learning in white suburbia. Baldwin says that the whole purpose of education is to perpetuate the aims of society but that the paradox of education is that once you develop a conscience you start to question that which you’ve learned. Teachers must be adaptable. They must engage with and question the world right along with their students. As a future art educator, it is my job to facilitate self and group reflections, to facilitate the sharing of diverse experiences, and to give kids space to grow into their own identity. As Baldwin states, it is our responsibility as educators to change society. It is our responsibility to unlearn and relearn. By teaching the truth we give children the opportunity to change the narrative of the future, because knowledge is power.
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