Dear Brothers,
On our podcast “Freedom Friday,” Chris Stewart, Ismael Jimenez, and I spoke with Dr. Jamaal Bowman, a former New York congressman and educator. Inevitably, Black men educators came up. That conversation inspired this letter, a decade after our opinion piece was published inviting Black men to become teachers.
The invitation remains. We also owe the brothers answering it serious preparation, support to stay in the classroom and accountability for what our children learn.
I recognize from my own experience the desire to build, help others be heard, and lead. Someone invited me to understand teaching Black children well as the highest, purest form of activism. One of the cleanest ways to kick the oppressor in the teeth, they told me, was to ensure our communities’ children were highly literate.
When our high school students said, “We need Black teachers,” we asked permission to use their words as our tagline. Listening required designing opportunities for them to become the teachers they wished they had and knew they needed. At the Center for Black Educator Development, that means preparation and teaching practice beginning in high school, with mentorship and support as young people continue toward the profession.
Bryce Thompson, a member of our first Future Teachers of Excellence Fellowship cohort, is now an assistant teacher in Baltimore. He says our work together “helped me realize that my voice has volume. My story has weight.” A student has already told Bryce he wants to follow his path.
Our ancestors were endangered for learning to read; our children are imperiled by low literacy today. We should approach teaching with some understanding of what it cost our ancestors to learn.
In 2023, Jayden Latimer, a student at Science Leadership Academy at Beeber in Philadelphia, was helping younger students learn, although he wasn’t planning to pursue education as a career. “I just feel like the system needs more truth to the youth,” he said.
We should welcome that judgment and prepare young people to act on it, whether they become teachers or contribute in other ways to our community.
Teaching Well Is Our Responsibility
Our ancestors were endangered for learning to read; our children are imperiled by low literacy today. We should approach teaching with some understanding of what it cost our ancestors to learn.
That responsibility requires study of Black educational history and practice, including Caroline LeCount’s advocacy for Black educators and Carter G. Woodson’s challenge to miseducation. We need to understand how educators organized with families to confront and change systems, resisted oppression and taught children to know themselves.
Dr. Constance Lindsay and her colleagues found that Black students in Tennessee’s STAR experiment who were randomly assigned at least one Black teacher in kindergarten through third grade were 9 percentage points more likely to graduate from high school and 6 points more likely to enroll in college. We also need teaching that cultivates positive racial identity. Our children deserve to know themselves and recognize their intellect and beauty without measuring either against whiteness.
Our preparation must also equip us to accelerate learning. Dr. Alfred Tatum calls for rejecting slow-growth models and low expectations for Black boys’ literacy. The Black Literacy Matters conference offers an opportunity to strengthen that work. Black girls deserve our intellectual care and advocacy as fully as Black boys do.
A parent leaves a child with a teacher they barely know, expecting protection and excellent instruction. Our “expertise” must be demonstrated with children. A degree ain’t always expertise on a child. Families bring deep expertise, starting with their own children.
Many Philadelphia teachers surveyed in a 2018 Temple University study felt unprepared for urban classrooms despite graduating from local preparation programs. We should include community-based certification and endorsements that require students, families, and accomplished educators to examine our body of work: What children learned, how their work improved, and how we treated them.
We earn trust by listening, explaining our instruction, keeping promises and giving families an accurate account of their children’s progress. Shared race does not make trust automatic or place our decisions beyond question.
Give Brothers Reasons to Stay
Dr. Bettina Love challenges schools to retain, protect and value the Black teachers they recruit. Young people watch how teachers are treated when deciding whether to join us.
Schools must provide affirming workplaces and opportunities to lead, alongside mentorship, collegial support and respect for culturally responsive teaching. Our love for children must not become permission to assign us extra responsibilities because of our race.
Brothers, no one owes a harmful school his health or silence. And Black children are far too often behind enemy lines in schools that demean them, deny them strong instruction, or punish their Blackness. We must support educators working inside those schools while organizing outside them to change conditions. Leaving a harmful school does not require abandoning our children.
We need Black men leading classrooms, coaching teachers, writing standards and developing curriculum. Curriculum writers should see students experience their lessons; coaches should help improve the instruction children receive.
Malcolm X compared racism to a Cadillac, with a new model every year. Oppression will keep changing its methods. Our students are future vanguards who need advanced literacy, discernment, creativity and the capacity to organize. The Nguzo Saba gives us principles for practicing self-determination and collective responsibility.
Brothers, bring your love for our people and your desire to build. Visit a classroom, learn from excellent teachers and seek preparation with substantial supervised practice. Those of us already teaching must invite you personally and help you act on it.
Teaching is sacred civic leadership. We are responsible to our ancestors and descendants, beginning with the children and families in front of us. Whether inside a school or adjacent to them, let’s build. Together.
With love and responsibility,
S. El-Mekki
Sharif El-Mekki is the founder and chief executive officer of the Center for Black Educator Development. The Center’s mission is to build the Black Teacher Pipeline to achieve educational equity and racial justice. El-Mekki is a nationally-recognized principal and U.S. Department of Education Principal Ambassador Fellow. He’s also a blogger on Phillys7thWard, a member of the 8 Black Hands podcast, and serves on several boards and committees focused on educational and racial justice.
