![\"#everydaycourage\"](\"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/everydaycourage.png\")
Last spring Christie Nold, a 6th grade teacher at Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School, was at Burlington\u2019s Jazz Fest listening to student musicians when she got some disturbing news: someone had spray-painted racist hate speech on her school\u2019s campus. <\/span><\/p>\nOverwhelmed by her own emotions, Nold also knew that she had to find a way to help her students deal with their own understandings and emotions about the \u00a0graffiti. Like Christie, many teachers are wondering how to address a recent rise in racism and white supremacy.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n After the events in Charlottesville<\/a> educators across Vermont reached out to Vermont Secretary of Education Rebecca Holcombe asking for guidance. Holcombe issued a memorandum<\/a> with clear implications: <\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cAs Americans, we have an obligation to protect the rights of all of us to disagree. However, we have an equal obligation to denounce any group that has as its core purpose the silencing or subjugation of others on the basis of their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, race, color, religion, national origin, immigration status, age, or disability.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/pburkevt\/status\/898652721892511745<\/p>\n \u201cDon’t be afraid to tackle hard issues: your students are already marinating in them through family conversations, social media and the press. Current events are the substance of democracy, and avoiding them makes education irrelevant. Instead, teach your students to question and think critically, to listen and hear those with whom they disagree, to engage in civil discourse. Questioning our individual implicit biases and assumptions is uncomfortable, but it moves us all towards that more perfect union to which we aspire.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n With their assistance, she crafted a plan to help her students process and deal with the hate speech in their own backyard.<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s back up a little.<\/p>\n Christie is quick to point out that asking students to participate in conversations about hate speech was only possible because of the work they had engaged in all year. \u00a0Tuttle MS sixth graders had been working hard to build community. As a class, they had created classroom agreements. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n @FHTuttleMS<\/a> student agreements (our classroom constitution) are up! pic.twitter.com\/deEdmSUgHj<\/a><\/p>\n — Christie Nold (@ChristieNold) September 20, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nSecretary Holcombe\u2019s memo signals not just permission to discuss current events in Vermont classrooms, but our obligation to do so:<\/span><\/h3>\n
So, how do we begin to have these courageous conversations with our students?<\/h2>\n
Christie Nold began by turning to her Twitter #PLN. \u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
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