Maurice Sykes has decades of experience under his belt, advancing high-quality early educational reform, teacher professional development, advancement and compensation. Having served as the deputy superintendent and director of early childhood programs for the D.C. Public School System and among his many roles as an advisor to the U.S. Department of Education on policy and programs related to urban school improvement and as a National Educational Policy Fellow at the Institute for Educational Leadership, Maurice has tremendous wisdom to impart.
Join Maurice and Lucy and their Supper Club guests as they discuss the challenges faced by educators today – challenges that include toxic stress, burnout and depression. Maurice views education as under attack, and he reflects on the upheaval that he believes has resulted from changing norms related to gender, racial and sexual equity. He worries that, in reaction to blistering criticism, there is a danger that teachers withdraw from powerful teaching for fear of saying the wrong thing and instead rely on scripts for their classroom teaching. This type of instruction though, which renders authentic conversations taboo, strips teaching and learning of its richness.
The conversation is not all doom and gloom, however. Maurice sees a real path forward to rekindling the fire within teachers – the fire that has always been at the root of teaching. This charge can be driven by all of us – by us as leaders, by us as teachers, by us as parents and by us as community members. We can do this, Maurice urges, by embracing culturally responsive teaching so that all children find a “place,” “space” and “grace” in every classroom they enter. And as Maurice so eloquently puts it, “If we don't speak, if they silence us. then we'll never make any inroads in terms of doing the right thing for children.
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