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[Music]

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[Audience clapping]

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Jen Holladay:[br]So um it's important for me to say

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that I[br]am here as a parent guardian from the

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Denver Public Schools and I just wanna

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thank the organizers for inviting

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uh parent voice into this venue I really

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appreciate the opportunity um I also just

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accepted a job with the Adams 14 School

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District so I got to do a little shout[br]out for Adams 14 um you know most TED

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Talks[br]talk about a new idea or a big idea I'm

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talking about uh really old idea it's

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been around for decades I'm talking

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about multiculturalism we were talking

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about it in 1978 and we're still talking

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about it today because it's been around

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for such a long time it can mean

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different things to different people so

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I wanna talk about some multicultural

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practices that I'm not talking about[br]today

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I am not talking about food and

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festivals or heroes and holidays

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kay these sorts of things can be really

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fun they're very easy to do and if

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they're authentic to the cultures that

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are represented in our school they can[br]be really fun community builders but

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they also come with some risks one of

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the things that I've see a lot out here

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is I see I see things on the school menu

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we'll have tacos and celebration of

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sin Cinco de Mayo[br]we'll have uh fried chicken for Martin

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Luther King Day we'll have soul food on

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the menu during Black History Month [br]um and again

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these sorts of things can be fun[br]but they also run the risk of sort of

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reinforcing stereotypes and they also[br]run the risk of trivializing things that

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are really really uh[br]quite important so um how

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many people here think most of your

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students have heard of Cinco de Mayo?

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Right and so if ya all had taught I use

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ya all as a gender-neutral pronoun if

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ya all had tacos um on your menu as your

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students are biting into that taco are

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they thinking about Mexican resistance

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to French occupation is[br]that what they're

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thinking about? No.[br]so it runs the risk of sort of

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trivializing something that is actually

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quite important

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oops can you go back one I'm also not

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talking about something we do a lot in[br]early childhood classrooms which is when

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we bring in stories from all over the

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world right kind of that folklore and

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sort of fables approach again this is

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something that's really easy to do it's

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also a way to kind of ensure that our

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children our diverse children in a

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classroom see somebody who looks like[br]them

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and and what they're reading in the[br]classroom it's a really easy thing to do

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but I wanna remind everybody that the

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value of multicultural content is not

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just about where a story comes from it's

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also about the messages um [br]that the story

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relays to the reader

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last year in her second grade literacy

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class my daughter was reading a

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multicultural anthology one of the

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stories that was included in that

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anthology was a story called the Selkie

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Girl which is a traditional Celtic tale

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and if I were to summarize this story

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it's basically about a man who gets

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obsessed with a magical seal woman so

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I'm gonna read one paragraph from

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this story he went to look in wonder and

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delight he saw three beautiful girls

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sitting on the rocks

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naked combing their hair one of the

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girls had fair hair one red and one

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black the fair haired girl was singing

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she was the most beautiful of the three

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and he could not take his eyes from her

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he gazed and gazed at her gleaming white

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body okay this was my daughter's

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response to that story um I would say it

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was my response as well so when you are

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using sort of the stories from around[br]the world approach remember that the

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messages matter the messages of the

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story matter as much as where the[br]stories come from um to be fair to my

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child uh this is what Zoey[br]looks like happy

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okay

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so if I'm not talking about food and

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festivals or heroes or holidays or

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folklore and fables um[br]what am I talking

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about? I am talking about the kind of

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social the the[br]kind of multiculturalism

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that's characterized by three basic

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things it is rigorous in terms of

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content and instruction very rigorous it

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supports all that skill building we're[br]so concerned about um it also is designed

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particularly with instruction to

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advance students pro-social capacities

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and that's a big phrase that just means

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our students can look at issues from

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multiple points of view and they can

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um work collaboratively in diverse groups

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that's what pro-social proficiencies are

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um and the third thing that the kind of

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multiculturalism that I'm talking about

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does is that it advances social justice

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let's talk about that term for a [br]second um last

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fall in the Denver Public Schools we had[br]a little kerfuffle um DPS rolled out the

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new a draft of the new teacher

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evaluation protocol and it included some

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elements that related to this term

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social justice and so it brought out[br]some pretty significant responses in our

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community to some people in our

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community if we focus on social justice

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that means we're going to turn all of[br]our children into socialists who hate

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white people okay this of course this

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kind of response then brought out people

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from the other end of the spectrum who

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said if we don't have an emphasis on

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social justice in our schools that just

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means our schools will serve to

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reinforce the white supremacist

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heterosexist oligarchy and by the way

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so [chuckles] right

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so if you get hung up on the

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social justice term if it's not a term[br]that works well for you um I'm gonna

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take a cue from our school[br]superintendent Tom Bose Berg when we

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were having this kerfuffle in DPS

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who just came back and said we want our

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kids to be critical thinkers

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multiculturalists are interested in our[br]children being able to look at at at issues

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from multiple points of view work

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collaboratively with each other

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and really kind of solve problems so the

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kind of multiculturalism that I'm

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talking about is the kind that is

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rigorous academically content and

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instruction it advances pro-social

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proficiency particularly through[br]instruction and it advances social

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justice or critical thinking whatever

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term you're most comfortable with

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so one of the schools that I have the

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privilege of being involved in in uh [br]Denver

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and Denver Public Schools is Highline[br]Academy Charter School

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I'm the board president there that's a[br]volunteer position where I work

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full-time um[br]and yeah and um Highline Academy

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is a K-8 public charter school

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authorized by Alyssa[br]authorized by the

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Denver Public Schools we are a

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purposefully integrated school and we

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mean that like in the old school way we

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are 50 percent[br]of color and 50 percent white that's on

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purpose and the demographics of South

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East Denver allow us to do that we're

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also what we call a court what we call

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literally we made this up we are a core

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knowledge plus school um[br]those of you who

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know core knowledge if you don't know[br]core knowledge what it basically is it's

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uh it's uh sequence and a scaffolded set

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of content that spirals up through the

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grade levels and it's a really useful

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tool because it allows us to make sure

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that you know our kids aren't reading

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that I have a dream speech every year

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when they when they do Martin Luther[br]King Day right it just allows us to

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create shared knowledge and second grade

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that is then built upon in the fifth

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grade so when Zoey my daughter was in 2nd

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grade last year um this was when they had

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their first introduction to westward[br]expansion

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um

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and it was now High Line High

0:08:09.469,0:08:11.359
Line has were a core knowledge plus

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school because[br]we supplement our content a lot to make

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sure it meets the needs of our diverse[br]learners and when Zoey got into this

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westward expansion unit it was uh whole

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bunch of old pioneer wagon trains river

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boats trains um and that and and[br]varied that

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based sort of in this manifest destiny

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mentality and that is a perfectly valid

0:08:35.489,0:08:38.599
way to teach westward expansion it

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really is because westward expansion was

0:08:41.099,0:08:43.329
really really good for a lot of people

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and we probably would not be here today

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had it not unfolded the way that it did

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but westward expansion was not good for[br]everybody

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um

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and I was really worried that Zoey was[br]only getting sort of half of the story

0:08:56.408,0:08:58.888
and so I sat down and I thought to

0:08:58.888,0:09:01.118
myself okay what is it I really want her

0:09:01.118,0:09:04.228
to know by the end of this unit what do

0:09:04.228,0:09:08.228
I want to be able to answer and I[br]wanted her to be able to think about how

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can progress be both positive and

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negative that's really what I wanted her

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to be able to reflect on with this unit

0:09:17.207,0:09:20.207
and so we supplemented a lot

0:09:20.821,0:09:23.391
we supplemented a lot we brought in the

0:09:23.391,0:09:25.061
core knowledge sequence for example

0:09:25.061,0:09:27.731
includes a short story that's uh that's

0:09:27.731,0:09:32.045
told from the perspective of a pioneer[br]girl who's going out on the road right

0:09:32.045,0:09:34.915
and so we Venn diagram early grades

0:09:34.915,0:09:36.895
teachers best friend we did a Venn

0:09:36.895,0:09:39.355
diagram activity using a story about a

0:09:39.355,0:09:41.245
bitterroots Salish [br]girl who was being

0:09:41.245,0:09:44.045
forcibly removed from her home that was

0:09:44.045,0:09:46.905
one way we brought in um[br]we brought in

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fiction nonfiction we brought in poetry

0:09:49.786,0:09:54.036
from the Choctaw we brought in um an[br]important thing that we brought in were

0:09:54.036,0:09:56.136
resistance narratives because when you

0:09:56.136,0:09:58.966
teach history particularly this episode[br]of history it's almost like it's a

0:09:58.966,0:10:00.986
foregone conclusion but there was

0:10:00.986,0:10:03.197
massive resistance to policies of Indian

0:10:03.197,0:10:05.867
Removal we certainly taught some of the

0:10:06.295,0:10:08.635
resistance narratives from Native

0:10:08.635,0:10:11.165
America but we also made a point to do

0:10:11.165,0:10:13.485
resistance re-resistance narratives from

0:10:13.485,0:10:17.255
white folks the the ladies of [br]Steubenville Ohio

0:10:17.255,0:10:18.945
a group of Quaker women

0:10:18.945,0:10:21.215
um who wrote to Congress asking them to be

0:10:21.215,0:10:24.015
more equitable um[br]a U.S. senator who gave a

0:10:24.015,0:10:25.535
six-hour long speech

0:10:25.535,0:10:28.265
on the floor of Congress um [br]asking folks to

0:10:28.265,0:10:31.821
reject the Indian Removal Act uh[br]we brought

0:10:31.821,0:10:35.191
in lots and lots of different things and

0:10:35.191,0:10:38.751
by the end of the unit um[br]my child and many

0:10:38.751,0:10:41.131
others could answer or at least reflect

0:10:41.131,0:10:44.491
on write about um that essential question

0:10:44.491,0:10:47.111
in what ways can progress be both

0:10:47.111,0:10:50.820
positive and negative they used all of

0:10:50.820,0:10:54.647
their skills their reading skills their[br]writing skills we had mapping activities

0:10:54.647,0:10:57.037
for geography we had graphing activities

0:10:57.037,0:10:58.887
for math it was a whole sort of skill

0:10:58.887,0:11:03.397
based it was very rigorous um[br]for my child

0:11:03.397,0:11:07.297
she was really transformed I would say

0:11:07.297,0:11:09.337
by this unit it really sparked a passion

0:11:09.337,0:11:12.187
for her I took at least three trips to

0:11:12.187,0:11:15.728
the bookies which is our little[br]independent teacher bookstore in

0:11:15.728,0:11:18.588
southeast Denver to get her nonfiction

0:11:18.588,0:11:20.638
books about Native America that kind of

0:11:20.638,0:11:22.568
thing and then she did the most

0:11:22.568,0:11:26.268
incredible thing she asked us to do

0:11:26.268,0:11:28.728
something over spring break she didn't

0:11:28.728,0:11:32.788
want to go to camp she didn't want to[br]lay around and play video games this is

0:11:32.788,0:11:34.288
what she wanted to do

0:11:38.176,0:11:41.146
she wanted to go[br]see the site of the Sand Creek Massacre

0:11:41.556,0:11:43.926
because she had read about it in some of[br]her books

0:11:43.926,0:11:47.546
so she was really really motivated by

0:11:47.546,0:11:50.276
this content you know that you're[br]getting it right when the kids are doing

0:11:50.276,0:11:55.736
it on their own time you know you're[br]getting it right so between second and

0:11:55.736,0:11:59.216
third grade umm[br]Zoey changed schools she is

0:11:59.216,0:12:01.916
now at the Denver Green School which is

0:12:01.916,0:12:04.076
uh when it's fully enrolled it'll be a

0:12:04.076,0:12:09.280
K-8 um be K 8 and [br]it's an innovation school

0:12:09.280,0:12:11.720
which means it's uh[br]it's a traditional DPS

0:12:11.720,0:12:13.480
school but it's got its own kind of

0:12:13.480,0:12:17.050
thing going on it does have an[br]environmental if I could get some water

0:12:17.050,0:12:18.440
that would be helpful

0:12:18.440,0:12:20.891
um it does have an environmental focus

0:12:20.891,0:12:23.721
um but it's really built around these

0:12:23.721,0:12:27.601
prin around[br]principles of sustainability and it's a

0:12:27.601,0:12:30.831
little different than environmentalism[br]so for example they are really

0:12:30.831,0:12:34.541
interested in teaching children about[br]the healthy commons how do we protect

0:12:34.541,0:12:36.861
the healthy commons thank you

0:12:38.834,0:12:44.154
hmm much better so the idea of the

0:12:44.154,0:12:47.304
healthy commons is there are things that[br]we share in common right we share the

0:12:47.304,0:12:50.624
earth we share the land we share the[br]water how do we work collectively to

0:12:50.624,0:12:53.634
protect those things so Zoey goes to

0:12:53.634,0:12:56.564
the Denver Green School and wouldn't you[br]know at there teaching westward

0:12:56.564,0:12:59.274
expansion in the third grade right I'm

0:12:59.274,0:13:03.274
like uh really because we just we just did[br]this and we just did it really well and

0:13:03.274,0:13:05.224
it was it was awesome and now she's

0:13:05.224,0:13:07.614
going to sit in class and do it all over[br]again

0:13:07.614,0:13:11.204
well Cartel uh Cartel Jacquet her teacher

0:13:11.204,0:13:16.796
um definitely did lay down some background[br]knowledge about what happened for Native

0:13:16.796,0:13:20.630
America and the pioneers of that sort[br]of thing and then Mr. Jacquet did

0:13:20.630,0:13:24.370
something that rocked my daughter's[br]world and it rocked my world and it's

0:13:24.370,0:13:27.370
very Denver Green School he taught the

0:13:27.370,0:13:29.390
unit from the perspective of Buffalo

0:13:30.104,0:13:32.064
right and if you think about

0:13:32.064,0:13:34.164
multiculturalism being about inviting

0:13:34.164,0:13:36.255
multiple perspectives think about the

0:13:36.255,0:13:41.125
power of children looking at westward[br]expansion from these three frameworks it

0:13:41.125,0:13:44.637
was really quite uh beautiful um[br]it was a

0:13:44.637,0:13:46.807
really beautiful and exciting thing [br]uh for

0:13:46.807,0:13:48.977
my daughter and for me and hopefully for

0:13:48.977,0:13:52.497
all the kids so I just wanna ask all

0:13:52.497,0:13:55.027
of the educators in the room that when

0:13:55.027,0:13:57.767
you think about doing multiculturalism

0:13:58.024,0:14:01.274
please don't stop with heroes and

0:14:01.274,0:14:04.244
holidays food and festivals folklore and

0:14:04.244,0:14:08.934
fables please don't stop there and maybe[br]don't even start there um because there is

0:14:08.934,0:14:12.164
a wonderful way um[br]to do a kind of teaching

0:14:12.164,0:14:14.314
and learning that is going to build

0:14:14.314,0:14:16.374
those academic skills you care about

0:14:16.374,0:14:18.314
that's gonna allow children to really

0:14:18.314,0:14:21.204
look at issues from multiple[br]perspectives um and that is

0:14:21.204,0:14:24.574
gonna enable[br]them to sort of think uh very critically

0:14:24.574,0:14:27.151
um [br]and and doing multicultural education

0:14:27.681,0:14:29.761
really at the end of the day is about

0:14:29.761,0:14:32.431
empowering our children uh[br]to be really

0:14:32.431,0:14:34.701
prepared to participate in our diverse

0:14:34.701,0:14:37.391
democracy thank you very much

0:14:37.391,0:14:38.271
[Audience clapping]

0:14:38.271,0:14:50.000
[Music]