Teach the Babies w/ Dr. David J. Johns

Naomi Shelton is nationally known and respected as a vocal advocate for quality choice options for Black and Brown students and families. She currently serves as CEO of the National Charter Collaborative. Do you know what distinguishes a charter school from other public schools? Do you have questions about whether charter schools are public schools? Tap into this episode to grapple with these questions and more.

This episode features a book talk conversation where Dr. Johns interviews author Brian Rashad Fuller about his latest publication, Being Black In America’s Schools.  The conversation, which took place on James Baldwin’s Centennial Birthday draws inspiration from the prolific witness and writer, touches on the apologies that educators owe their students, the process of unlearning trauma taught in public schools, and the process of learning that teaching is political.

Maia Blankenship  is a mother, career educator, and proud Spelman University Alumna. She helped found Wildflower Schools in 2021 and is the co-CEO of Black Wildflowers Fund. Have you ever wondered what happens at Montessori schools and if they’re suitable for Black students? This episode answers these questions and more. Parent, family, and community engagement, the enduring legacy of lessons learned at HBCUs, and African-centered child-centered learning are unifying themes.

Bobby Edwards is the director of community inclusion and external relations at the McLean School.  His current role calls for constant engagement with our community to develop and implement Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts.  This episode describes the role that elite private schools play in preserving privilege, what privileged families seek to buy when playing the real estate for school access game, and the importance of supporting the unique needs of all learners.

Judith Browne Dianis is the Executive Director of the Advancement Project National Office. She’s served as a lawyer, professor, and civil rights advocate for the movement for racial justice for decades, including at the NAACP-LDF.  Did you know that for every one white male student suspended or expelled K-12th grades, the rate is three times higher for Black boys? The rate is six times higher when comparing suspension rates of Black girls to their white counterparts.  This episode reflects on how Brown increased surveillance and discipline for Black students, the consequences of carceral policy-making, and the power of context and community.

Dr. Christina Grant is the DC State Superintendent of Education for the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. She is a system leader, researcher, and highly sought-after public speaker with decades of receipts for improving life opportunities and outcomes for children and families across the country. If you’ve ever wondered what a superintendent is responsible for or why it’s important to support Black women educators, you’ll want to bookmark this episode.

Melanie Willingham-Jaggers is the Executive Director at GLSEN, a national nonprofit working to ensure public education is safe and affirming for all students, including those who identify as and are assumed to be queer, trans, or gender expansive.  Our conversation explores why it’s essential to say gay, bi, trans, and other words that have held important meanings before being politicized while ensuring that all students have access to adults who are competent and compassionate. Melanie discusses the work of GLSEN, which is incredibly important considering recent increases in anti-LGBTQ legislation targeting students, schools, and democracy. 

I was invited to deliver a keynote address during the Summer Training Institute, and this trip would mark a decade almost to the day that I was last at Knoxville with my CDF family and our ancestors knew that my soul needed the food that could only be prepared by social justice warriors working to defend democracy by supporting students in schools. This special episode of the Teach the Babies Podcast features the keynote address that I delivered at this year's conference. I hope, if nothing else, you can feel a fraction of the energy that was palpable to me both then and now. I also hope that you are inspired to learn more about the legacies of the Children’s Defense Fund, Freedom Schools, the indomitable Marian Wright Edelman and the team's quarterback at present, Reverend Dr. Starsky Wilson.

Damon T. Hewitt is the President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. He possesses more than 20 years of civil rights litigation and policy experience, including prior leadership roles in the nonprofit, philanthropic, and public sectors. This episode revisits the legal motivations for bringing the Brown V. Board lawsuit, the role of courts and our legal system in facilitating access to opportunity (or not), strategies to disrupt resource hoarding, and the white-washed memory of Brown’s legacy. 

Bianca Baldridge is a youth worker, scholar, and educator currently serving as an associate professor of education with expertise in community-based education and critical youth work practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This episode explores out-of-school learning spaces and the lessons we can learn from youth workers to support students, improve schools, and strengthen democracy. Loving, listening to, and learning from Black children, youth, and young adults are salient and unifying themes throughout. 

Andrea Foggy-Paxton brings a unique perspective to leading change across sectors, drawing from leadership roles in start-up organizations, established organizations, and philanthropic organizations supporting systems transformation.  This episode answers the questions: What is civics, and why should it be taught to all students? Andrea shares lessons from her experience as an industry titan and appointed school board member.  She also talks about philanthropy and corporations' responsibility for ensuring educational equity.edloc.org

Stephanie Allen does God’s work.  A career educator for more than two decades, Ms. Allen currently teaches high school in Guilford County Schools in Greensboro, North Carolina, the third largest school district in North Carolina. She was recognized as a Teacher of the Year in 2019 and 2024–a recognition she’s earned. This episode features the front-line experiences of a classroom teacher, centers stories about under-supported students, and describes necessary steps to dismantle the social hierarchy that relegates Black students to the lowest rungs of every quality of life indicator ladder.

Dr. Hunter is a prolific scholar, prodigious author, and lover of Black people and our collective freedom. The inventor of the “Black Lives Matter” hashtag, Dr. Hunter’s latest book Radical Reparations: Healing the Soul of a Nation (HarperCollins/Amistad 2024), has fueled a federal bi-cameral legislative effort to attain equity.This episode explores the genesis of NBJC's Equity Week, how slavery is thriving, the promises and possibilities of reparations, and the relationship between reparative justice and Juneteenth.  We also explore how whiteness is a recent and dangerous invention, lessons Dr. Hunter learned as a student and an educator at high schools and colleges across the country, and the importance of affirming people who have been force-fed a steady diet of white supremacy.Does the Negro need Separate Schools? https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/freedom/1917beyond/essays/does-the-negro-need-seperate-schools.pdf Radical Reparations Healing the Soul of a Nationhttps://www.harpercollins.com/products/radical-reparations-marcus-anthony-hunter?variant=41378013872162 

Becky Pringle is an educator with more than thirty years of classroom experience. In 2020, she was duly elected president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest labor union. This episode explores the responsibilities that teachers and leaders have for improving schools and defending democracy, the power and importance of labor unions, and the responsibility that caring and concerned adults have for supporting students and schools.Freedom to Learn Pledgehttps://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/action-center/take-action/demand-freedom-learnMake Your Pan to Votehttps://educationvotes.nea.org/take-action/vote-plan/

Nancy Hanks of the Management Center joins the pod to discuss building, bonding, and boundary setting as necessary for all educators to #ProtectTheBabies. In addition to offering commentary on the recently fired attention-seeking educator, this episode explores the legacy of Reverend Oliver and Linda Brown and the toll that being a race warrior, challenging segregation, and upending white supremacy can exact on Black educators and Black families.Having gone from a life of poverty on the west side of Chicago to becoming a Harvard graduate, Nancy Hanks knows firsthand that one's circumstances do not predetermine one's future. As a teacher, principal, and systems leader, she has led both the development of technical systems and the cultivation of values and beliefs necessary to hold all students and adults to high expectations and provide them the support they need to meet that high bar. She shares lessons learned throughout her #TeachTheBabies journey.

Part 2 of our conversation with Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, former president of The University of Maryland, Baltimore County. This episode explores the extension of Brown's legacy by serving within the higher education administration, the power of praying, the literacy of Black mothers and mother figures, and the brilliance of our babies.

Dr. Freeman Hrabowski is your favorite university leader. He served as President of The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, from 1992 to 2022.  This episode explores what it’s like to have lived through the Brown decision, marched and been jailed at the invitation of Dr. King, and extended the legacy of Brown by serving within the higher education administration.

In the series opener, Dr. David J. Johns sets the stage for the upcoming season with a look back at the historical context of the Brown v. Board decision that transformed education in our country. In addition to important background, the episode offers three vignettes about pivotal figures in the struggles for educational access, equity, and opportunity in the "land of  the free".