From the Barat Education Foundation Board:

We are not partisan combatants. We’re human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God. We rise or fall together. And we’re determined to rise.
– George W. Bush, May 2, 2020

Across the United States and the world, tens of thousands are protesting the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. That act of violence perpetrated by four Minneapolis police officers has awakened an existential crisis in America due to the systemic racism which has been part of our DNA since 1619 when black people were brought to this country in slave ships.

How do we address the anger, fear and depression of a nation facing a perfect storm because of race, health and economic inequities?

It is time for Americans of all political stripes and persuasions to rise not as partisans but as committed citizens concerned about the future of our democracy.

The Barat Education Foundation [BEF] carries on the educational and cultural legacy of Barat College developing students to be socially aware, to impel to action, and to know how to care-and-act because compassion without action is fruitless.

For the past decade our programs have and will continue to support teachers and their students to become civic leaders. Saint Madeleine Sophie Barat said “your example, even more than your words, will be an eloquent lesson to the world”.

Our American Voice® program has empowered thousands of elementary and middle school students to become civic actors in their communities. The Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources program and Citizen U have enabled teachers nationally to bring action civics into their classrooms.

Now with our partner the Office of Innovative Professional Learning (OIPL) at DePaul University, we are bringing teachers together virtually in the C.A.R.E. webinar series: Creating, Authentic, and Responsive, and Engaged (Teaching and Learning to Transform Lives). This series launched because of the pandemic’s shut-down of classrooms and the economy is now being extended and expanded because of the protests.

C.A.R.E. for Educators Zoom Gathering

In times of darkness, teachers always rise up. Today they are facing the challenge to teach during a health, economic and now racial pandemic.

The topics are big — social justice, institutional racism, and the power of peaceful protest, equity and access. The events of the past days are impossible to ignore.

NOW, more than ever, teachers, are being called along with others, to help transform our country – to become agents of change and equity. How do we do this?

• What exactly is needed?
• How do we summon the resiliency, the compassion, the insight, and the strategies to do what is needed?
• How do we manage our own fear, sorrow, confusion, anger and pain filling our hearts AND TEACH?

We will explore these questions and other issues in the C.A.R.E. series, beginning Monday, June 8, 2020 at 3:00 pm CDT.  To register: C.A.R.E. Webinar – Teachers as agents of change and equity

This is a journey that we must take together. The first step of this journey must be listening to our teachers to empower them so they can help others to rise.