The recent rash of viral stories featuring white people who call the cops on law-abiding black people is an iteration of implicit bias that happens in schools every day. It’s time for educators to self-reflect.
George is an award-winning teacher and author. The child of Holocaust survivors, he began teaching in 1983 to tell his family’s story and increase acceptance and understanding among young people. Cassutto was an innovator in bringing the internet to the K-12 classroom during the 1990s. He has since published The Internet Pocket Guide for Teachers, Civics Lesson Plans and US History Lesson Plans for new, overworked and out-of-subject-area teachers.
My son was a 16-year-old high school junior on 9/11/2001. He could see the twin towers burning a few miles across the harbor from his school in Staten Island, N.Y. Across the country, other students watched the images on television, either as they were happening or later, as they looped endlessly on cable news.