Like many of you, we are closely following the George Floyd story and the Central Park story and Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor…and seemingly countless other examples of racism in our country. While NYC or Minneapolis,Georgia or Kentucky may seem worlds away, the disproportionality of the impact of COVID-19 is clear in our sending districts daily. We must face the fact that many of our students and families, colleagues and friends are at constant risk of violence due to racism, whether it be sudden and swift, or creeping like a spreading disease.
We are proud of the many BVP staff members who are standing up in the fight for justice in our country. Every one of us can. There are many ways to get started, and perhaps none more powerful than self-education. All BVP staff read and reflect upon Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail in their first days of training, as we welcome new members into the Beloved Community we are striving to build. We recently encouraged all staff to re-read Dr. King’s words, which resonate particularly powerfully in moments of deep injustice. We invite everyone to do so.
Reading, re-reading, and discussing the words of people who celebrate diverse communities, point out racism and systemic oppression, and challenge our thinking is at the heart of BVP’s vision of an intentionally diverse community. And, while there is always work to do to bring more voices into our curriculum, we are intentional about what we teach and how we use books to raise questions. We invite everyone to join us in reading these texts from our curriculum, which are selected to push our collective thinking, and move all of us to building a more just and inclusive world.
Elementary (K-4):
- I Love My Hair
- The Colors of Us
- Amelia’s Road
- Golden Domes and Silver Lanterns
- Seven Spools of Thread: A Kwanzaa Story
- And Tango Makes Three
- Tar Beach
- I love Saturdays y domingos
- Family Pictures/Cuadros de Familia
- Henry’s Freedom Box
- A True Book: The Wampanoag
- My Brother Martin
- Ruby Bridges Goes to School
- The Story of Ruby Bridges
- The Mighty Miss Malone
- Number the Stars
- The Diary of Anne Frank
- Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America
Upper Elementary (5-6):
- Esperanza Rising
- Birchbark House
- Seedfolks
- Shutting Out the Sky
- Witness
- Persepolis
Junior High (7-8):
- Warriors Don’t Cry
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Maus
- Night
- Inside Out and Back Again
- Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House
High School (9-12):
- The Hate U Give
- Fences
- The Bluest Eye
- Beloved
- Maya Angelou – selections
- Letter from a Birmingham Jail
- The New Jim Crow
- 13th
- Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?
Our Mission at Blackstone Valley Prep is to prepare every scholar for success in college and the world beyond. Perhaps there is no moment more powerful than now to be focused on ensuring that the “world beyond” is a world we are proud to live in.
