A Promise to Each of Our Children
Starting Now.
The schools we left in March were not working — especially failing the children of our families who have been disenfranchised and denied access to educational opportunity for generations.
Since then, a call for justice has brought millions together with a loud and emphatic demand for institutional reform — hundreds of years in the making — to the systems that have withheld equity, justice and equality from so many.
As a country and in each of our communities, we have to be better. And we have to promise to be better — for every person — from birth.
We are called to be on the right side of history — to ensure that every child knows they belong, has a voice and is empowered to use that voice. Only through justice can we find peace, and only by breaking down racial and ethnic barriers and rejecting old ways can we ensure that every child born is seen as free and equal and provided the opportunity to decide their own future.
We promise to transform our cities, towns, and communities into places of safety, learning and growth — with schools at their core, abolishing those practices that have robbed children of their futures.
We will:
- End the practice of silencing children and instead foster emotional awareness and perspective-taking.
- Build intentional relationships with children, and teach each child to listen.
- Listen to each child. Encourage children to ask questions, to think critically, to use their first language, to discern and decide, to challenge or defer and to empathize.
- Ensure that every school is a place for each child to thrive and advance, to express their feelings and affirm their identity.
- Follow the science of reading, so every child has a chance for literacy and equal access to the paths to knowledge, thought, and empathy.
- Reject racism in all its forms and address biases explicit and implicit, in pursuit of equity, justice and equality for all our children.