My name is Brooke Brown,
and I work at Washington High School
in Tacoma, Washington,
and I teach ethnic studies.
Tell me a little bit about the course
and what you do.
We’re really looking at things like identity,
looking at race,
a lot about my students learning
how to love themselves,
to appreciate their own past
and their culture and their ethnicity.
Discussions about race, equity, and inclusion
are really difficult.
I'm biracial and just struggled always to fit in
so I've been on my own journey
of learning how to love and accept myself.
And then I'm able to do
the same thing for my students.
I really try to create
a sense of community in my classroom.
We ask children from a very young age,
what do they want to be?
I've reframed that in my classroom
and develop who students want to be.
When you look in the mirror,
you're satisfied with who looks back at you,
not because you've done everything right,
but because you've learned
how to take responsibility when you don't.
This is an assignment
and it's a way for students
to start to think about their identity.
I give students the blank piece of paper
with some sunglasses on them.
If you could,
you can take a pencil or a pen,
and write down a quote
about how you aspire
to live your life,
something that inspires you.
I have a quote from Bono,
"We're one but we're not the same."
Perfect.
Okay, so then on the inside,
we're going to take some time
and think about what are parts of our identity
that impact how we see the world.
Here's mine.
I put some of the roles that I have.
I'm a wife. I'm a mom.
I have four kids. I'm part Jamaican.
Social justice is the reason
why I do everything.
And I'm a learner.
I love pizza and ice cream.
I like coffee.
And I love watching sports.
My faith is important to me.
I'm a daughter, a sister, an educator,
an advocate, and a bridge builder.
Wow.
What are a few things
that you would put in your lenses
that inspire the way you see the world?
Well, draw a little personal computer.
I'm not the world's best drawer.
I got the books.
That's the continent of Africa.
That's a vaccine, a tennis racket.
That's a father, of course, it's clear.
That looks great.
You know, when I went to high school,
we did not have ethnic studies
so it’s fascinating to hear that that's
an important class for the kids.
Talking to students,
there was this enormous weight
that they felt.
Feeling the pressure of the pandemic,
the murder of George Floyd,
and this reckoning as a country with racism.
My goal is always to say,
"Look, you don't have to change the entire world.
But if you change the world
for those around you,
then you have changed the world
because you've changed the world for one person."
But it sounds like you like creating
new ideas and you're willing to try things out.
I just want to do whatever our students need.
Education is about futures,
education is about the legacies of our students,
and education is about humanity.
And I think when we put our students' humanity first,
the sky's the limit for how far our kids can go.