some summer break good news

summers can be hard for me as a teacher. i know it sounds like champagne problems, but my routine—or what small semblance of one i've been able to hold together this year—falls apart. i've visited family and now i'm focused on getting some writing done, but school and my kids are never far from my mind. i spend equal amounts of time dreaming about next year's class and worrying about my kids making it through the summer whole and healthy.

the new orleans headlines are tough and, as always, the rhetoric of criminalization is the default response. this would maybe be understandable if we weren't already the most criminalized "democracy" in the world. seriously, if locking people up created safety, Louisiana would be the safest place in the world.

it is not.

i'm working to balance the dreaming and the worrying. the worrying comes easier, so i work harder at the dreaming. this newsletter is a collection of things that are grounding me in the reality that the dream is possible, it is actual, it is happening in pockets and corners.

abolition is possible, it is actual, it is happening in pockets and corners.

here's some fuel for the dreaming:

Kawailoa Youth and Family Wellness Center, where we had the opportunity to visit Kupa Aina: a beautiful farm that sits next to the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility that implements aloha and malama aina through planting Native Hawaiian plants for food, encompassing community, unity, and service.

Kupa Aina offers a place of healing and restoration for youth and community members alike, showing that Hawaiian values and traditions can provide learning, growth, change and connection in all who practice them.

Working Toward Native Hawaiian Equity In Our Justice System

Bills pending at the Legislature this session focus on rehabilitation and cultural practices.

Honolulu Civil BeatLeah Delos Santos,

None of my students left the class this year harmed by thinking critically about U.S. history. From the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee of the civil rights movement to Lydia X. Z. Brown and X González, young people have always been involved in and led movements toward justice.

Conservatives aren’t afraid that students can’t handle uncomfortable truths about the past—they’re afraid of what they’ll do about it.

Debunking Historical Myths with My High School Students

I told my class to write about misconceptions in U.S. history—what they came up with gets to the heart of the “Critical Race Theory” panic.

Progressive.orgKatie Wills Evans

if you want to be the good news, i'm fundraising for a flexible, comfortable classroom space for my kids to come back to after the summer. if you can't donate, please share:

Comfort Leads to Learning, a project from Ms. Katie

Help me give my students a variety of comfortable and flexible seating options. LS NOLA works to connect each and every one of our students to their indigenous, ancestral legacies & traditions thro...

DonorsChoose

as always, i hope this was helpful.

if it was and you've got five bucks a month to spare, click here.

with hope,

katie wills evans