Sara Gregory,
The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot
Nothing has ever ravaged classrooms worse than the COVID-19 virus, but the most impassioned discourse in American education right now has nothing to do with the pandemic.
Instead, as the leader of Hampton Roadsâ largest school district put it, a panic over lessons on so-called âcritical race theoryâ is dominating the publicâs attention.
âAll this noise is starting to drown out the âwhyâ of our work as educators,â Virginia Beach Superintendent Aaron Spence wrote in a Virginian-Pilot column last weekend. âThe boil over this needs to be brought down to a simmer.â
As battles flare across Virginia, including in Bedford, Botetourt and Franklin counties in the Roanoke region, here are some answers about what critical race theory is â and whatâs behind the political war that has engulfed the nationâs schools.
With new funding pouring in, Virginia flood program readies for first round of projects roanoke.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from roanoke.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Kayla Arestivo has never seen war. But she has felt it.
As a kid on Long Island, she was 8 when the planes hit the skyscrapers in Manhattan. Her dad, William Fallon Jr., was on the 103rd floor of the north tower. He and every one of his colleagues at Cantor Fitzgerald at work that morning on floors 101 through 105 died.
It took time for Arestivo to grasp what had happened. Her life became consumed by night terrors, eating disorders, addiction, an attempted suicide as a teenager. She saw counselors, but what she really needed was a community.
âI needed somebody to tell me I wasnât crazy,â Arestivo said. âThat it was OK to feel this way.â
Chesapeake council approves massive 900-acre solar project roanoke.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from roanoke.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Teamoh was born enslaved in 1818 in Norfolk. His parents, David and Lavinia, or Winnie, last names unknown, died when he was a young child. He and the Thomas family that owned him moved to Portsmouth about 1828. He developed a strong bond with the family matriarch, Jane Thomas. When Teamoh was about twelve, he was hired out to another family, where he was treated roughly. In 1832 while working in a brickyard he taught himself to read by listening to white children singing the alphabet in school and identifying words on handbills and posters. His clandestine attempts at literacy were curtailed when the yard’s brickmason discovered the used primer that Teamoh had found. From about 1833 until 1853 he was hired out for a series of jobs but worked mostly around the city’s shipyards as a ship’s caulker and carpenter.