I recently found something I had written on the inside cover of a Bible I carried when I was in college: “If everyone shares their faith like you do, would the Church grow, become stagnant, or fade away?” Ouch. I hate when I’m asked tough self-awareness questions – especially by my own self.
This question came back to me as I’ve pondered the conversations taking place across the community on “equity” in my work with Chattanooga 2.0 and as an individual who cares about our community. If everyone in the community approached equity the same way I do, in particular equity for ALL students, would our community grow, become stagnant, or fade away? The self-awareness I’m forced to acknowledge when I answer honestly is humbling.
This isn’t the first time the question of personal reflection in the equity space has grabbed me by the metaphorical ears. A few months ago I attended an equity in education convening in New Orleans, and we were asked to list specific ways that personally or professionally we address the issue of equity for students. What did I find in my self-reflection? I found that I TALK about equity a lot. I meet about equity a lot. I read about equity a lot. I define equity in theoretical terms a lot. I do a lot of sage nodding and brow furrowing in discussions concerning equity. What I’m NOT doing a great job of is defining what equity looks like in practice for me personally or professionally.
To be honest, I’m embarrassed that I have not publicity spoken to the issue before now. Silence on an issue can easily be viewed as assent for the status quo, and the status quo isn’t cutting it for some students across Hamilton County. I think sometimes as organizations or leaders in the community, we keep looking to each other for the moment to rise up and not only stand in the breach for students but also push back on vitriolic rhetoric when it arrives on the scene to divide us.
Equity was one of the priority areas identified through our Chattanooga 2.0 community engagement. Through the lens of the Chattanooga 2.0 work, at a minimum, equity is about access for ALL students. Access to resources, access to wrap-around supports, access to early childhood supports, access to post-secondary pathways and sufficient support on those pathways to obtain a market value credential. Those are foundational starting points in education, but it’s also much more than this at an economic mobility and societal level, where more voices need to be heard and more concrete strategies need to be implemented.