My eight-year-old son smiled as we drove to school on the first day in August 2014. “I’m so excited, Mama. I have butterflies and frogs in my tummy.” By the end of the first week, he was lamenting third grade. “I hate school,” he’d moan on the morning commute. Before the end of the first quarter, I overheard him telling a playmate, “Yeah, I’m probably going to fail this year.” After his friend left, I checked in with my son. “Why do you think you’re going to fail?” He shrugged, “That’s what my teacher told me.” The mama bear rose up in me. “You are not going to fail! We are in this together. Mama will do whatever it takes to help you make it through this school year,” I committed.
What I Learned About Race Through the Eyes of My Brown Boy
by Tamara Fyke
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Tamara Fykehttps://loveinabigworld.org/
Tamara Fyke is an educator and social entrepreneur with a passion for kids, families, and urban communities. She is the creator, author, and brand manager for Love in a Big World, which equips K-8 educators with a social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum that is both research-based and practical, and also provides the supporting resources necessary to empower students to be socially competent, emotionally healthy problem-solvers who discover and maintain a sense of purpose and make a positive difference in the world.
Tamara is the editor of Building People: Social & Emotional Learning for Kids, Schools & Communities, a book that brings 12 wide-ranging perspectives on SEL to educators, parents, and leaders.
Now more than ever, we need to teach our children what LOVE looks like. Find out more at loveinabigworld.org.
