Supporting Positive Change

Throughout the month of July, I am donating my earnings from the sales of Activate: Deeper Learning Through Movement, Talk, and Flexible Classrooms to an organization that is working to eliminate racial injustice in our criminal system and to educate Americans on our shared history.

Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) and its founder, Bryan Stevenson, help me see past my white middle class experience to understand how much work is left to be done in our country. Poverty, skin color, mental illness, and lack of access to quality services should not equate with the word "criminal" or serve as justification for entry into the criminal justice system.

Through Stevenson's work, I am learning that the most vulnerable children are suffering not only poverty and violence, but also the ever-present threat of life disrupted by crime and incarceration.

While the team at EJI shares stories of the many people they have served in their work, I am most moved by their stories of children who've been subjected to the harsh and cruel conditions of adult criminal law.

From trials that overlook their age, their history, and their circumstances to penalties reflecting the cruelest extents of the law including incarceration and excessive sentences, these children are at risk of increased trauma and decreased hope when they are admitted into the system.

As an educator, my very purpose on this planet is to serve our children by offering access to tools and supports that will empower them to elevate their life experience, contribute to the world through their unique gifts, and to know love, joy, success, and fulfillment.

I wrote Activate to share with educators everywhere what I've learned from working with over a thousand students about educating for student self-actualization. America's kids need their teachers to recognize and respect who they are individually, honor and aim to meet their needs as human beings, and guide them toward independent expression of their perspectives, talents, and pursuits.

If teachers do the work of showing our kids they are valuable and that we believe in them, and then the kids go home to poverty, violence, and detriment, then we need to ensure they have more people fighting for their survival and success.

EJI works diligently to look more closely at cases where careful scrutiny and a lens of racial inequality may have been absent. They re-examine instances of people sentenced to life without parol or execution, and seek answers as to whether those sentences were appropriate for the crime committed or alleged. They fight for wrongfully accused or excessively sentenced people—frequently children—and have influenced positive change in how criminal law functions in the United States. They illuminate racial inequality, and the tolerance of injustice throughout our society so we can make necessary reforms and operate in better alignment with the values we profess as a nation. They partner with schools to fortify history education with the stories and voices that have previously been excluded, particularly regarding Black Americans and their role in the founding, shaping, and continuing development of this country.

For these reasons and more, I stand with and support the EJI team and their efforts. Please join me in helping them continue their important work.

Throughout July (and likely longer), every sale of Activate will help a teacher better serve all of his or her students while generating financial support for EJI. It's a win-win proposition!

Learn more about EJI at eji.org, and consider gifting Activate to a K-12 teacher or group of teachers. Let's work together to improve the outlook of every child in this country!