ILUMINANDO EL CAMINO

ILUMINANDO EL CAMINO

By Sarah Najar

Building bridges in our community within education throughout San José has never been more important. As a teacher, I have the privilege of working with children from my own community. This is a critical early step in making lasting changes within our neighborhoods. Students in schools across San José are going through trauma inflicted by the lack of People of Color (POC) educators. Our children are experiencing their toughest academic year after nearly two years of virtual learning. Engagement with students and student families is crucial to understanding the circumstances of all — but especially the students of lower socioeconomic backgrounds. Children are facing grave educational barriers from K-12 to higher education. Latinx students throughout the United States experience accumulative disadvantages when entering the educational system.

“Building bridges in our community within education throughout San José has never been more important.”

Teachers and parents can work together to provide the support their students and children need. Although, education is a teacher’s primary goal — building foundational relationships within the classroom and outside of it has never been more crucial. As a Chicana educator, I have experienced firsthand how these foundational relationships have changed the day-to-day in my classroom. Students can make mistakes and learn from them. They are building trust in adults and re-learning social protocols and barriers with one another post-pandemic learning. This has been the hardest academic year because of the circumstances surrounding Covid, food insecurity, losses of income, inflation, and so much more. Our students are coming to school every day needing a supportive and kind community. More importantly, they need to see themselves flourishing in these systems of education.

“More importantly, they need to see themselves flourishing in these systems of education. ”

To build long-standing bridges in our community, we need to diversify the teaching workforce in our school districts. San José still employs a teaching staff of 54.3% non-POC educators while only 22.3% are Latinx. Students need to see themselves in their educators to break down the systemic racism in education. Let us not forget that the collective oversees change in our community and change to our children’s futures.

“To build long-standing bridges in our community, we need to diversify the teaching workforce in our school districts.”