1st Edition
Not Light, but Fire How to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Classroom
Do you feel prepared to initiate and facilitate meaningful, productive dialogues about race in your classroom? Are you looking for practical strategies to engage with your students?
Inspired by Frederick Douglass's abolitionist call to action, "it is not light that is needed, but fire," Matthew Kay has spent his career learning how to lead students through the most difficult race conversations. Kay not only makes the case that high school classrooms are one of the best places to have those conversations, but he also offers a method for geting them right, providing candid guidance on:
How to recognize the difference between meaningful and inconsequential race conversations.
How to build conversational "safe spaces," not merely declare them.
How to infuse race conversations with urgency and purpose.
how to thrive in the face of unexpected challenges.
How administrators might equip teachers to thoughtfully engage in these conversations.
With the right blend of reflection and humility, Kay asserts, teachers can make school one of the best venues for young people to discuss race.
Part 1: The Ecosystem 1. Demystifying the “Safe Space” 2. Developing your “Talking Game” 3. Structuring Your Dialogic Curriculum 4. Establishing Your Purpose; Part 2: A Study of Conversations 5. The N-Word: Facing It Head-On 6. “Say It Right”: Unpacking the Cultural Significance of Names 7. Playing the Other: Thoughtfully Tackling Cultural Appropriation 8. Pop-Up Conversations: The 2016 Presidential Election
Biography
Matt Kay is a founding teacher of English at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. A proud product of Philadelphia Public Schools, he graduated from West Chester University and received his Masters of Educational Leadership from California University of Pennsylvania.
"I found myself thinking, 'How different would the field of education be if Matt Kay had advised John Dewey? How different would I be if Matt Kay had been my teacher?' The answer: radically so. He is that important, and his work on race is that essential."
—Cornelius Minor
"This is the book we need to shift the 'tried and tired' practice of touting empty rhetoric about race to a practice that puts us firmly on a pathway toward achieving racial equity. Matt is a master facilitator and shares the tools every teacher needs to hone their practice to make conversations about race commonplace. This book provides not, not a glimpse, but a long gaze into the type of classroom and teaching that can revolutionize education."
—Sonja Cherry-Paul
"A reminder to educators to not sidestep or oversimplify conversations about race, but to engage students in them as scholars with voices and experiences that are just as important as those of the adult in the classroom."
—Ericka Smith, Learning for Justice review
"I’m in love with Matthew’s book. He writes with clarity, passion, and backs up everything he says with experiences or history that hits you right in the chest. As an educator in the world today, we owe it to our students to listen to what Matthew Kay has to say."—Jacob Chastain, Teach Me Teacher podcast
"Thoughtful, timely, and beautifully written."—Kelly Gallagher
"I can’t recommend this book highly enough for its scaffolding and stories on how to create a classroom culture that supports serious conversations about difficult topics....Having read this book, in many ways I feel I can’t return to the teacher I was....This is not a book to be skimmed in one sitting, but instead to be digested, then acted upon."
—Sarah Cooper, Middleweb
