When it comes to movies, I’m a Netflix and chill kind of girl. I typically watch movies after all the spoilers have appeared online. My husband, on the other hand, wants to be in the movie theater the weekend a film is released. What typically happens is my husband goes to the movie theater alone,…
Author: Educator Barnes
Whose Child Has to Die for Gun Reform to Take Place?
Whose child has to die for gun reform to take place? I want to know because the lack of change must mean the wrong children have died. Their parents will have to bear the most significant burden life could hurl their way – outliving a child. These parents must not have suffered enough. Their pain,…
Indianapolis Celebrates Frederick Douglass’ 200th Birthday
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is one of my top ten my favorite books. I have read this novel several times and finished reading this novel again a few days ago. Towards the end of the novel, Douglass shares of the time when he held a Sabbath school at a…
National School Counseling Week: Jennifer Schaffer
National School Counseling Week takes places each year during the first full week of February. This year’s theme is School Counselors: Helping Students Reach for the Stars. Jennifer Schaffer, School Counselor at IPS 60/Butler Lab School, definitely helps students reach for the stars, and beyond. For ten years Schaffer was a math teacher. During…
Are We Building Up Our Black Children to be Young, Gifted and Black?
This is one of my favorite quotes from Black playwright Lorraine Hansberry author of the play A Raisin in the Sun. This quote is from a speech she delivered to winners of a United Negro College Fund contest in 1964. During Black History Month and throughout the year, it’s important for us to introduce children…
Take Your Child to the Library Day
The first Saturday in February is Take Your Child to the Library Day (TYCLD). TYCLD is an international initiative that began in Connecticut by two librarians Nadine Lipman and Caitlin Augusta and artist Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. If you missed going to the library on the first Saturday of February, no worries. According to the…
Indiana is One of Eight States Where Parents Pay Textbooks Fees. When Will This Change?
My boys are in first grade this year. For each of my sons, my husband and I paid $27 for education fees, $99 for textbooks, and $36 for workbooks. When you add those fees up for both our children, we paid $324 this school year. That does not include the money we spent, a little…
World Read Aloud Day 2018
February 1, 2018 is World Read Aloud Day. This day was created by the nonprofit LitWorld in 2010. According to LitWorld’s website, “750 million adults around the world – two-thirds of them women – lack basic reading and writing skills.” This year LitWorld decided to have World Read Aloud Day coincidence with Harry Potter Book…
Crafting Policy Takes Time, but Nothing Will Change Unless You Get Involved in the Process
A little over a week ago, I wrote: “More Educators of Color Need to be Involved in Education Policy.” I would be a hypocrite to make this call to action and not rise to my own call. On Monday, January 29, 2018, I spent several hours at the state capitol building in hopes of…
School Choice Week: Stop Shifting the Focus from Great Schools for All
As I think about School Choice Week, I am often reminded of the issues that shift us from our focus of every child receiving a great education. A few weeks ago, social media was all abuzz over The 74 article, “Are Charter schools a Cause of – or a Solution to – Segregation?” I found…