Dr. José Vilson, PhD
@TheJoseVilson
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The educator Gotham deserves. #EduColor ED. PhD @TeachersCollege , Sociologist + Policy. NBCT. Author. @TheJoseVilson everywhere.
New York, NY
Joined June 2008
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Please support my work as an educator and scholar, and get a newsletter about math, culture, and education directly to your email.
Sign up for my newsletter below:
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Most of my work as a math teacher isn’t even math. It’s helping students believe that they can also do math. We don’t talk about that enough.
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“The classroom remains the most radical space of possibility.”
- bell hooks
Rest well.
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I don’t know who needs to hear this, but I pray we can have class again this school year. At least for a month.
I want to finish the year with students, colleagues, and, yes, admin face-to-face.
This is not a vacation for me. I’m hoping for a strong May. 🙏🏾
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People are calling this the worst debate they’d ever watched. For me, it was the most instructive. The fact that America has millions of people who voted this president to office speaks more about our country than it does about him.
Let’s not shy away. Let’s learn.
#debates
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@MarkRuffalo
People think kindness is niceness. The problem is, injustice should always make us angry.
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I’ll just say it:
Elementary school teachers, especially in underresourced schools, should get paid more than everyone else.
Including tenured professors and university presidents and coaches.
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Buenos días, mi gente.
Good news:
I just got a scholarship to King’s College, word to
@Lin_Manuel
.
“Dr. Vilson” sounds about right.
Let’s do this.
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I’m gonna put this out there because some of you need to hear this:
All teachers need to start thinking of themselves as special education teachers.
Even though not all of us have licenses, we need to seek guidance on how best to serve our special needs kids.
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Some news:
I’m starting a new social network where people pay to watch educators planning lessons for hours, cleaning classrooms, and having meetings with dozens of people a day.
I’m calling it OnlyPlans.
OK, I’ll go.
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We forget that the devaluation of social studies edu through the early 2000s in favor of tested subjects allowed for where we’re at today. Imagine if this country stepped up years ago and decided to embrace a curriculum that allowed for full participation of all its citizens.
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Our Black children shouldn’t *have to* fight so hard to get human rights for everyone. Oluwatoyin Salau was 19, barely out of our classes, like so many of my own alumni.
Aiyana. Trayvon. Michael. And now Oluwatoyin. Among too many school-aged children.
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@yourrightscamp
@SheriffClarke
You played yourself, Clarke. Run along with them fake medallions now.
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Who are the DMXs in your classroom that you consistently send to the dean’s office? What can we do differently? What *must* we do differently?
#EduColor
DMX was constantly institutionalized from ages seven to fourteen in homes for troubled boys in upstate New York: “They thought I was a bad kid, pain in the ass. I was actually a very bright child who was easily bored and frustrated."
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P.S. - If you’re not wearing a mask or social distancing and you’re openly advocating for schools in the middle of a pandemic, you’re part of the reason why we can’t open schools.
That, too, includes the president.
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Student teachers shouldn’t have to go broke to get into a profession that’s already underpaid. That, too, is an equity issue.
Many aspiring educators are expected to take on full-time, unpaid internships, often leaving them in financial distress. Despite compensation being added to many professional programs— teaching often remains without. End unpaid student teaching.
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A gentle reminder to my fellow educators that, for many of our students, just showing up is “grit” enough. Their “bad” behaviors aren’t innate, but manifestations of the environments handed to them. Grace and patience with them matter in this work.
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I wish more of us knew how valuable community is. In fact, the people trying to destroy community seem to understand that value more than many of us do.
Grateful for the communities I get to be part of, on and offline.
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Let me say this:
For all the fear people had about radicalizing black and brown youth over the years with curricula that might center them, our society’s done an astounding job of radicalizing white youth and creating pathways of permission towards white nationalism.
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Unpopular opinion: if you want to take your child for a snow day, take your child for a snow day. Perfect attendance is overrated.
Don’t ask me how I know.
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Giving children “an education” is not enough. “Exposing" them to different cultures is not enough. We need an anti-racist education movement.
We can change the people, the structures, and the curriculum all we like. Without shifting the critical consciousness, we won’t move.
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Hey
@Lin_Manuel
, I was digging through the Hamilton Apocrypha when I found this lyric: "I used to do my homework in the back of a bodega / With abuela, saving up to get a Sega …” Bless up.
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It’s official: I’ve resigned from the NYC Department of Education.
After 15 years and hundreds of students, I had the opportunity to say goodbye to my colleagues at school. The kids are in good hands.
I’ll say more soon (on my blog, yes), but I miss my kids already.
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Shout-out to the educators who did double duty teaching kids by day and organizing for democracy by evening.
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I wish people understood the way our classrooms soak up whatever energy we give it. That’s why it’s important to prep the room with your own vibe before the students get in there.
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Today, a student said “You’re a good teacher. You should go teach white kids.” I didn’t understand it then, but now the pain is setting in.
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The conversation I’m seeing right now reminds me how lacking our civic education has been for decades now. When we set social studies aside in favor of narrower versions of math and English, we lost a content area where we could apply those skills in real time.
We can do better.
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Peace to the 19K workers at Amazon who contracted COVID, the 1000s of airline workers furloughed today, the thousands of educators susceptible to the virus, and the 1000s of refugees at our borders treated inhumanely.
And that’s what I gotta say about the president.
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Me: “Name a famous person, living or otherwise, who you’d like to meet and why.”
My student: “Can it be 7 of them?”
Me: “Is it BTS?”
Her:
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Working on this article and, to paraphrase Dr. Fauci, I don’t know how to make people care more about children. I just don’t.
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This reminds me of the times when I would do a speech on equity and social justice when someone would eventually ask “How does this apply to me when I teach in a school that’s almost all white staff with all white students?”
This moment is your reason why.
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So … I’ll say this:
A doctorate in education is legit *and* I’m hoping we can learn how to respect people with strong pedagogy and venerated careers in education even when they don’t have a title.
Because the silence on the latter is wild …
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If you’ve ever been a middle school teacher for at least six years, you’re well equipped to be a professor in higher ed. Don’t let them tell you any different.
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So glad that John Lewis got his roses while he was alive. Even more glad he’s getting his praise as he joins the ancestors. Bless up, Mr. Lewis.
Good trouble.
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Between me and you, I teared up a bit seeing some of my students over video conferencing.
If you were treating students like full human beings before the virus, you’re probably hurting a bit right here and now.
Keep the same energy.
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Listen, y’all.
I may not be the best teacher in the world, but am I the best lesson planner? No, but do I have the quietest classroom in the school? Still no but am I the most collegial? Probably not, but ...
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If your whole theory for why we need educational justice is centered on test scores, you’re not interested in educational justice.
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Shout-out to anti-racism before it was popular, before it was profitable, before it was palatable, before it was safe to say our lives matter on here and elsewhere.
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I’ll be grateful to Twitter for keeping me abreast of what’s happening in Puerto Rico, Pakistan, and now the Dominican Republic. Even a tenth of the wealth on display this morning would have alleviated some of the pain we’re seeing across the world right now.
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Today, I’m sending love to unnamed Black educators who’ve been doing this education work for decades and rarely get the shine they deserve. You may not get on the lists or get that *title*, but your work has helped hundreds of students see themselves and others.
Thank you.
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Buenos dias, mi gente.
In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, here are ways to appreciate us:
- Coffee
- Naps
- Books
- Belief in the academic and socioemotional wellbeing of our children
Not necessarily in that order.
This is our moment. Much love to my fellow educators.
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Remote learning was awful in 2020 because we had to flip the nation’s largest public school system into a virtual school system in a week or so.
We had adequate time to create a more robust solution since then. But that didn’t happen. That’s the inequity.
This post from a NYC high schooler about the covid situation right now is wild
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The other part of the student loan conversation I haven’t seen yet:
Educators, especially those who are required to get higher licensures by their states, accumulate enormous debt just to stay in a profession where they’re getting paid much less than their licensed peers.
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Repeat after me:
Gifted and talented programs were never about merit.
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Repeat after me:
It should have never come to this.
It should have never come to this.
It should have never come to this.
It should have never come to this.
It should have never come to this.
It should have never come to this.
It should have never come to this.
Ever.
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Last night was the first night I watched the Simpsons in about a decade and I swear the entire episode was a sub about
@ewarren
.
With full accountability,
#PresidentWarren
sounds right.
#LFG
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Shout-outs to my educators still grinding on a Friday preparing for the uncertain, the gut-wrenching, the the arduous, and the inequitable.
I see you.
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You: Teachers shouldn’t be political in schools.
Me:
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Also, I don’t think I’ve stopped working since maybe April, but let me say this:
Today we celebrate,
Tomorrow we rest,
and,
Like any good teacher,
Sunday night we plan for the work on Monday.
Let’s get it.
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The reason why we shouldn’t open up our public schools is the same reason this president feels comfortable opening them up: the majority of students in public schools are children of color.
Forcing students into schools during a pandemic right now is immoral.
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A student who I hadn’t heard from in a couple of weeks is doing his work right now. Google is notifying me assignment by assignment. This is a moment where we’re tempted to act small.
This is a moment where we get to be bigger.
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Often, good teaching is teaching subversively.
When compulsory policies and practices don’t align with what the students actually respond to, we have to shift our policies and practices.
It usually means we’re risking our ratings and positions, but it’s worth doing well.
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Good morning, my people.
Today is
#WorldTeachersDay
, so this is a special shout-out to teachers who've been fired, harassed, or systemically afflicted for speaking up and out about issues of social justice, esp. teachers of color in marginalized spaces.
Raise them up. Bless!
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As a Black educator in NYC, I’m even more frustrated with the SHSAT situation because it highlights how often the brilliance of our black and brown kids get negated by a mere two hours of sitting down and bubbling in.
Standardized testing is a tool for structural racism.
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So this teacher was placed on leave for *checks notes* actually believing that her students mattered and needed to be seen?
Texas teacher who posted Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ posters in her virtual classroom was placed on leave after parents complained
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I wish more of you knew how many of us have put ourselves as educators in perilous situations for the benefit of students only to have pundits turn around and tell us we’re terrible when testing season comes around.
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Update: As of yesterday, I’m no longer a doctoral student at Teachers College, Columbia University.
I’m now a doctoral *candidate* at Teachers College, Columbia University.
This here is a victory lap. A bottle of champagne and some soul-sampling hip-hop are on deck.
Good morning, my people.
I got a big thing happening today. It’s a culmination of some of my work, not just in the last three years but my forever work.
Send your best wishes below, please.
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Y’all: “May the 4th be with you!”
Me after eight years of Catholic school and Saturday school: “And also with you?”
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At some point, we’ll need to talk about how education is both an institution that perpetuates inequity and an institution that can help dismantle the inequity en masse.
We can actually hold those multitudes so we can pave a way forward.
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This meme won.
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Something to consider:
Maybe not foisting all of society's responsibilities onto teachers is a good way to recruit and retain them.
Asking one person to ensure that children's academic and socioemotional needs are met has never been sustainable, but here we are.
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Folks love saying that our classrooms shouldn’t be political, but fail to recognize that the very idea of everyone getting an education in this country is a political idea.
The educational is political and the choices our country makes about classrooms are already politicized.
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“I have a lot to accomplish. I don’t have anything to prove. There’s a subtle difference there.” - Stephen Curry
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Buenos dias, mi gente.
Whoever told you that teaching was easy has never attempted to memorize 100+ names while creating differentiated lesson plans for all of them and juggling about three interruptions per period. We really flexin' on this work.
This is our moment.
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@nxthompson
If you ask me, there’s something wrong with the 2008 picture. I mean, photoshop?
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Please: tell me more about how compassion and effective government doesn’t work to help everyday people.
New Zealand.
No masks.
No lockdowns.
No new cases — with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern attending a big outdoor BBQ on a national holiday.
Leadership matters...
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I won’t let those filled with hatred steal my joy. Not on my son’s birthday. Not any day.
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Also, not for nothing, but “good trouble” is one of the reasons I’m still doing what I do to this day. I’m glad he gave us language for the work before, during, and forever after.
Bless you, John Lewis.
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I'll never understand why asking for schools to be fully funded needs to be radical or controversial, but that says less about the activists and more about those holding the money.
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I wish more people understood the complications with delving into issues of race as a current classroom educator. Simply engaging the conversation is an invitation for people to call central offices, write anonymously to a per, or flood our notifications.
Fragility is wild.
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Can we talk about how being responsible for anywhere between 20-40 different energies can drain your own?
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Unpopular opinion:
Arming teachers will only worsen gun violence in our schools. Asking schools, again, to take on society’s problems continues to be a recipe for disaster.
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When you’re a teacher about an hour away from vacay and take off the professionalism for a minute
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How many of you know what it’s like when your workplace doesn’t care for your mental health?
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@KarenAttiah
Also, as has been pointed out, many of these folks pontificating on the decline of work ethic are ... working from their expensive homes.
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Good morning, all.
Special shout-outs to the new teachers out there. Welcome to one of the greatest professions in the world. Remember that the title of “teacher” also means you’re teaching and learning at the same time.
Good luck!
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In 2018, I need for us to discard teacher-as-hero narratives. We should steer clear of those who, when given a platform, embrace deification. If we’re doing the daily classroom work, we do the complicated, complicit, human work. All of it true to us.
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When you’ve had friendship like this, you’d never want to go back 😂
Find yourself a hype-man like Little Man in the Polo tee…
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We can’t win this school reopening conversation if we’re constantly thinking about the immediate steps and not the structural elements that got us here in the first place.
We need a new narrative.
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Hey, sending a note of strength and health to my people out there.
I’m so NYC, I got a positive COVID test result just like the rest of us did. Bing bong. Mild symptoms. Vax’d, boosted, flu shot, etc.
Our family is good and loving. Please take care of yourselves. Thank you.
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So we’re going to both change the names of schools with Confederates and slave holders AND build an anti-oppressive environment for the students learning in those schools, right?
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I got a lot of feelings about this 20th anniversary, but here’s one:
Miseducation is when we teach about the events of 9/11, but not what’s happened in and to this country and the world since then. That decontextualization has proven dangerous to this day.
We never learned.
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Oh good because, as a parent, I think my students should learn about justice, equity, and anti-capitalism. Agree?
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Educators, he just gave us a whole unit of study for social studies along with a poetry / writing lesson. He did that.
#EduColor
"Enslavement reigned for 250 years on these shores. When it ended, this country could've extended its hallowed principles — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — to all, regardless of color," writer Ta-Nehisi Coates told Congress. "But America had other principles in mind"
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Buenos días, mi gente.
Who got you in this way? Who do you got in this way?
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To reiterate this, the United States already has the most student face-to-face time in the entire world. Pulverizing students with more instruction doesn’t yield the benefits people think it does.
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My support is going nowhere.
#LFG
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