A huge "Thank You" to Mandy Manning, and to those former students who
urged her onward.
Carl Jarvis
On 4/25/19, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://socialistworker.org/2019/02/13/the-teacher-of-the-year-who-schooled-trump
The Teacher of the Year who schooled Trump
February 13, 2019
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Mandy Manning won the 2018 National Teacher of the Year award from the
Council of Chief State School Officers. She teaches English Language
Learners in the Newcomer Center at Joel E. Ferris High School in
Spokane, Washington. Last May, Manning visited the White House to
receive an award honoring her from Donald Trump.
While receiving the award, she staged a silent protest. She handed Trump
a stack of 45 letters written by her immigrant students, in which they
explained their ???hopes and dreams for the future??? and their
disagreements with Trump???s rhetoric and policies toward refugees and
immigrants. In addition, she wore several pins on her dress ??? one that
read ???Trans Rights Now,??? another from the Women???s March, an apple with
the LGBTQ rainbow colors, plus pins from the National Education
Association, Peace Corps and Teacher of the Year program.
More recently, motivated by her outrage at the Trump administration???s
racist detentions of refugee and immigrant children at the U.S. border
and the separation of children from their parents, she began organizing
with other State Teachers of the Year to set up a group called Teachers
Against Child Detention.
On February 17 in El Paso, Texas, they are organizing a Teach-In for
Freedom starting at 9 a.m. in the San Jacinto Plaza. She spoke with
Darrin Hoop about her students, their protest of Trump, the upcoming
teach-in and some goals for the movement to end the detention and
criminalization of immigrant children and their families.
WHAT DO you teach? What are your students like?
THIS IS my 20th year in education. For the past 10 years I???ve been
teaching in Spokane. The last seven years I???ve taught in the Newcomer
Center which is 100 percent full-time working with brand-new English
Language Learners. I???ve had students from every single continent:
Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Malaysia, Thailand, Burma, Myanmar, China,
Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda, Congo, Guatemala,
Colombia and Mexico ??? literally all over the world.
Mandy Manning with her students at the Joel E. Ferris High School in
Spokane, Washington
Mandy Manning with her students at the Joel E. Ferris High School in
Spokane, Washington
In my classroom, I usually serve between 15 to 25 students. They
generally have between 12 to 15 languages spoken at the same time. The
goal of the Newcomer???s Center, which is five periods a day, is we spend
one period on intensive reading and writing, two periods on English
Language Development and two periods on the English for math. But the
real goal of the Newcomer Center is to help these students transition to
living and studying in the U.S.
The main thing that I???ve learned from the kids, because I learn far more
from them than they learn from me, is that they are focused and
dedicated more so than students I???ve worked with in the past. They are
100 percent committed to reaching their potential and to giving back to
the community which welcomed them in. They???re truly remarkable human
beings with remarkable stories and so much resilience, tenacity,
dedication and focus.
GIVEN THE racist and xenophobic environment today with Trump???s
relentless push to build a wall on the Mexican border, how important is
it for you to win this award given you teach immigrant students?
BEING SELECTED was surprising, but it was also so very validating
because I think that in social media and on news sources, we often hear
the darker side of the viewpoints of our people in our nation. We see
that there???s white supremacists. We see that they???ve been emboldened in
the last couple of years.
I think that the fact that I was selected as National Teacher of the
Year really does give hope because it shows that there is a large
section of society that doesn???t believe that way. I think it shows that
all of these organizations [that hand out the award] have the belief
that we should be welcoming.
All children, regardless of where they come from, have endless potential
and deserve to reach that potential. Every single teacher when a kid
walks into their classrooms should believe that about every single child.
WHY DID you decide to meet with Trump? How did you decide to make a
political statement?
What you can do
??Join the Teachers Against Child Detention Teach-In for Freedom on
February 17 in El Paso, Texas. Register to attend here.
??Sign the petition and make a video calling for the end of immigrant
child detention.
??Donate to support Teachers Against Child Detentions.
??Host a teach-in in your community.
??Educators should teach lessons in your school.
??Collect books that will be given to local organizations that help
resettle refugees and send to:
??Teachers Against Child Detention
??c/o Ysleta Teachers Association
??10910 Ben Crenshaw, Suite A
??El Paso, TX 79935
THERE WAS a great deal of thought and discussion that went into my
decision of whether or not I was going to attend the White House
ceremony. Ultimately, I spoke a lot with former students because my
current students are a brand-new and have only been in the nation for
three months or fewer and have limited English-language proficiency.
Every single one that I spoke to said you have to go to the White House
because you have to tell the president about us, who we are, why we???re
here, what we dream about, why we???re thankful that we???re here, and how
we want to act.
A previous state Teacher of the Year had taken letters to the president
from her students the previous year in 2017 when he first took office. I
thought that???s a great opportunity. The kids want me to tell their
story, but who better can tell their story than them?
I had the students not just from my class but also from the upper-level
English-language classes, some community members and also some former
students all write letters about their journey to the United States.
Their hopes and dreams for their futures and how they want to give back
to the nation that will welcome them.
I started to think also about my other students because I have been an
adviser for the Gay Straight Alliance. I???m also a basketball coach, and
I???ve had transgender students on my basketball teams. I???ve worked with
kids who have been going through different things with their sexuality.
I thought I can???t stand up there in that environment that is not kind to
a lot of my kids and not communicate to them that I???m not there to be in
that environment for myself. I???m there to stand up for them. The way
that I thought I could do that was to wear pins that represented groups
of students that I directly work with. I chose some pins that I had
available to me. I wore those to the ceremony and I took my letters and
delivered them to the president. I did my best for my kids.
WHY DID you decide to call for a teach-in at the border?
A FEW weeks after my visit to the White House, this administration???s
policies in terms of immigrants coming across our borders really ramped
up. That???s not to say that there haven???t been issues with immigrant
rights previous to this administration because this is not something
that is new. It???s just that we???re seeing a different iteration of it.
Essentially just shutting off any kind of opportunity for people to
freely move throughout the world particularly into and out of the United
States. In May, that???s when the child separations really started to
happen in earnest. This was really upsetting to me. I didn???t know
exactly what to do about it. I had writing a written a couple of
editorials, but it didn???t feel like that was enough because words are
words, but action is the thing that makes the difference.
When I was in Alpine, Texas, for an event in early October, I was near
the Tornillo children???s detention center. I was about three and a half
hours away. I didn???t have any kind of transportation, so I was berating
myself because I hadn???t planned better.
I started to think, well what difference would it make if I went? If it
was just me going and witnessing is that going to make a difference? I
thought, no we need to have true action.
I started to talk to some of my fellow teachers of the year from 2018,
particularly Amy T. Anderson from New Jersey, Ivonne Orozco from New
Mexico and Tara Bordeaux from Texas. Could we as a group go down there
and do some sort of a demonstration? They thought it was a great idea.
Then I started to reach out to some other groups like Indivisible that
are more skilled at organizing than I am because I???m new to this aside
from some union organizing that I???ve done here locally in Spokane. I got
together a team and that???s when the whole thing really started to take
shape.
There are currently 11,400 children being detained in detention centers.
There???s something like 117 detention centers now.
The teach-in is going to be for that whole day. We???re going to have
teachers from across the U.S. teaching mini-lessons about the topics
that impact child detention, the trauma, and history of immigration and
detention in our nation. We???re going to highlight local stories of
teachers who have students who have been impacted there.
We???ve really worked hard to include local organizations because ours is
not the first group to work on this. It???s very important that we work
with other organizations who are already leading in this effort.
Since we started, the Tornillo detention center has closed down. But
there are several other detention centers in that area. Plus, it???s right
down by the border where there???s a lot of activity. It???s kind of been
likened to the Ellis Island of the current situation because so many
families and individuals come through that area on their journeys.
WHAT IS your hope for both the size of the overall turnout and
specifically educator involvement?
I KNOW that there???s going to be a lot of local educators from the
surrounding communities, Texas, New Mexico, hopefully from Arizona,
Oklahoma and the surrounding states. My hope is that we will have, if
not over a thousand, at least hundreds of people there. We???re hopeful to
have at least one educator from each state participate directly in the
teach-in.
We???re going to have a resource fair so that people can get information
about what???s happening and resources for educators so that they can take
information and do what we???re calling a teach out where they???re teaching
their students the history of immigration and what???s currently happening
in our nation. Possibly hold solidarity teach-ins directly within their
communities particularly within the eleven states that have detention
centers.
There will also be different cultural things happening around the plaza
so that people can really get to know the communities that are seeking
asylum here in the U.S. and the benefits and beauty that they bring with
them.
WHAT ARE your short- and long-term demands and goals you hope to achieve?
OBVIOUSLY, OUR big one is for the U.S. government to shut down these
detention centers. We???re calling on educators to act as mandatory
reporters to demand the immediate release of innocent immigrant children
in U.S. government custody. We believe that children deserve to be in
school, be free and be able to reach their potential.
WHY DO you think it???s important for educators to connect issues from
immigrant rights to trans rights?
I???M PARAPHRASING here, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best ???When
there???s injustice for one, there???s injustice for all of us.??? We have
to
make sure that we are fighting for the rights of all of our communities
because all of us are together. All fights for equity have to the
intersectional. We can???t just decide that one groups fight for equity is
more important than another groups because we all deserve equity.
That includes like the right to love who we want to love. The right to
walk through a store and not be targeted because of the color of our
skin. The right to drive a car and not be pulled over because of the
color of our skin.
That means we have to fight for justice for all of us. I can???t just say
I???m only working on behalf of immigrant and refugee students because
that???s not true. As an educator I serve all students.
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