Received by Rethinking Schools Editor Bob Peterson - December 1, 2010
From the YWCA's award program:
Bob Peterson is a fifth grade teacher at La Escuela Fratney in Milwaukee. For nearly 40 years Bob has been an active anti-racist leader in the community and Milwaukee Public Schools. He is the founder, editor, and writer for the national publication Rethinking Schools, in addition to authoring several books and articles addressing globalization and justice. Bob is also the founder of the Educators' Network for Social Justice, which holds an annual anti-racist/anti-bias teaching conference. His tireless commitment to justice has made him a prominent anti-racist leader in Milwaukee.
LISTEN NOW: or Download Bob's 5 minute talk .
Read on for the text of the speech Bob gave upon receipt of the award, or download the PDF (two pages; 94KB).
Bob's remarks:
Thank you. It’s an honor to receive the Eliminating Racism award from the YWCA, which has done such outstanding work in a city that so desperately needs the issue of race to be placed on the table. I want to thank in particular, Martha Barry and Mary Ryan for their work with me on the Social Studies Taskforce that stopped the adoption of the racially-challenged Houghton Mifflin social studies textbook series and Mary’s subsequent work on the Coalition to Stop the Mayoral Takeover of MPS. It’s through such community/educator coalitions that real change occurs and schools improve.
I grew up in Madison WI in the 1950s and early 60s. It was the quintessential white, middle-class experience. Whiteness engulfed my being. My peers, my school, my church, even the color of our house were white. Unconsciously, I learned that one of biggest privileges of being white in the United States is that one doesn’t have to think of one’s race -- of being white -- it’s perceived by many as the universal norm.
My life changed at 12 years of age, when my father moved our family to Africa for two years where he worked with the Ministry of Agriculture in Egypt. Spending my formative teens years in a country that was not white, not Christian, not wealthy, not Englishspeaking awakened me to a world my white cocoon had hidden.
Upon returning to Madison I organized in high school for student rights, against the Vietnam War, and for Civil Rights. I learned a lot from the leaders of those movements, particularly the leaders of Civil Rights Movement, such as Fannie Lou Hamer who I had the privilege of meeting in Madison and visiting in Mississippi. Listening to her tell how she was “sick and tired of being sick and tired” yet watching her tirelessly work for freedom, inspired me to deepen my work as well – in my community, in my union and in my classroom.
I bring several key beliefs into my fifth grade classroom:
- Children should be taught that racism and other forms of oppression are bad,
- Children have the right to learn in two languages, including their mother tongue.
- Children should learn to look at controversial issues from multiple perspectives,
- Children should learn that the greatness of our country rests on the social movements for justice that have shaped our national narrative, and finally
- Children should learn to embrace civic courage and to act on their beliefs
I remind my fifth grade students that in Milwaukee we occupy land that was once a network of villages -- in fact Milwaukee is a Pottawatomie word that means -- a gathering place by the rivers. At a rally a several years ago in Milwaukee against state legislation that would have declared English the official language of Wisconsin -- a Native American speaker asked if the bill might also prohibit the government from publishing the word Milwaukee, for in reality it isn’t an English word.
One of my students wrote about this issue. She wrote a letter to Toby Roth, then-Congressman from Green Bay, author of a federal English Only bill. She wrote:
“I think what you are trying to do is racist. It’s good to know two languages. People need to know more languages if we are going to get along in this world. Please stop making laws like this because it could hurt our bilingual school.” The girl is African American.
Teachers and schools need to do more than acknowledge the stain of racism in our country’s past. When texts don’t talk about racism, when standards don’t mention racism, when teacher don’t teach about racism, they automatically eliminate any discussion of anti-racism. For if there is no racism there is no reason to be anti-racist. As a result kids rarely learn of moments in US history when people have worked across racial lines for equality. Without role models the likelihood of students working against racism diminishes.
A few years ago, when Voces de la Frontera started actively organizing for immigrant rights, I saw an opportunity to connect my curriculum with community concerns about anti-immigrant attitudes. My colleagues at La Escuela Fratney along with a few parents and I organized our fifth grade students to attend the massive immigration rights march of 30,000 people – a life changing educational experience.
I’ll close my comments tonight by sharing an excerpt from poem written by one of my former students at that time – Nancy Carlos, 11 years old. She wrote this after she attended the rally.
The March
I walk through
The yelling people
I feel like my ears
Are gonna explode,
Shaking from the
People shouting
“!Sí se puede, sí se puede!”
…
I am an immigrant.
All that matters is we
Fight for justice
Yelling…
“Sí se puede”
“El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido”
We walk through
The shivering cold
My feet feel
Like heavy bricks
I tell myself I will
never rest until I
get my freedom
Let’s all learn from Nancy Carlos; let us not rest until everyone gets their freedom.
Thank you.