The connection I’m building with my students starts every day with a box of Cocoa Puffs. Name-brand cereal may not sound all that special, but it’s something most of my students can’t afford. It’s something I remember longing for when I was a kid.
Even though our school serves breakfast in the classroom to all students, I bring a group of boys from our K-4 school together for a special breakfast to fuel their day with a dose of self-esteem. We eat and we talk, and they get to start their day knowing someone at school understands and cares.
A year ago, these boys were on their ways to entering our country’s devastating school-to-prison pipeline. They were routinely disrupting their classrooms and commanding disproportionate amounts of attention from school leaders. All of them are black. Most lack a consistent father figure in their lives. Now, they’re part of a brotherhood where they push themselves and one another to be great. We call our group “The Movement.”
[For more on this story by CHRISTOPHER EVANS, go to https://hechingerreport.org/te...ntoring-black-boys/?]
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