Smithsonian National Education Summit 2023: Welcome Reception
Early today — Tuesday, July 18 at 6:00 p.m. — I watched the online Welcome Reception to the Smithsonian National Education Summit. Held online over the next two days, and in-person throughout this week, the summit brings educators together from across the United States to discuss improvements in American education. The theme for this year is “Together We Thrive: Fostering a Sense of Belonging” and has a special focus on the experiences of Black male students. Dr. Monique M. Chism, who works as the Smithsonian’s Under Secretary for Education, hosted the opening panel. She noted that students are getting the lowest test scores in decades after the COVID-19 pandemic, and teachers are leaving the field. This effect is felt by Black male students more than other demographics, as they are disproportionately suspended and expelled and most likely to dropout of high school and college.
On the stage to discuss education were Secretary of the Smithsonian, Lonnie Bunch III; District of Columbia Teacher of the Year 2023, Jermar Rountree; and founder of Real Men Teacher and professor at University of Maryland School of Public Policy, Curtis Chavis Valentine. Each man described his path through education. Bunch had teachers for parents and was always asked “Where you going to graduate school?”, along with the regular reminder that his grandfather Lonnie Bunch I was forced to attend dental school twice due to racist policies of the New Jersey dental board. Valentine’s relatives include John Chavis, the first Black man to attend a college or university in the United States who later become a teacher for both Black and White children; and William Valentine, founder of the Manual Training and Industrial School in New Jersey. Rountree, in contrast, received little family assistance in his education, attending eight elementary schools, five middle schools, and five colleges to become the first in his family to graduate from college.
The panelists discussed parts of their childhood that gave them a sense of belonging. Rountree got a job at the Boys & Girls Club and worked his way up, becoming a mentor to other children at the club. His own mentor, substitute teacher Darrell Parker, encouraged him to “Focus, work hard, and get it done”, a mantra that still drives him. Valentine had glasses, braces, and a stutter as a child, but his principal allowed him to lead visitor tours of the school to build his confidence. Bunch performed well in school despite an antagonistic guidance counselor who refused to send his grades to Howard University even after Bunch was accepted.
The panelists also discussed their early experiences with museums and other forms of education outside the classroom. Bunch was kicked out of the Cloisters in sixth grade after knocking over suits of armor. In high school, when he went to the New Jersey Historical Society to do research, the woman in the office waved him away. Jamar was not allowed to go on a class trip to Washington, D.C. because he was either suspended or did not have high enough grades. When he finally visited while in college, he was amazed by what he found and now describes himself as “a kid in a candy store” when visiting museums. Valentine joined the Peace Corps and became an educator in South Africa.
Dr. Chism asked the panelists to speak on current barriers to education. Valentine expressed his concern at book banning and censorship, especially that White students will feel betrayed by parents and educators for not showing them the whole story about history. He believed these students were more likely to identify with abolitionists than slaveholders, citing Jewish-American Julius Rosenwald who built over 5,000 schools specifically for Black students. Bunch described how cultural institutions needed to become a resource, allowing Americans to better understand each other’s lives and overcome what divides them, declaring that “The Smithsonian ought to be the glue that holds the nation together.” Both Valentine and Rountree emphasized the need for teachers to be open and vulnerable with their students, especially those who look like them. Valentine cited a recent study showing how Black students benefit from having a Black teacher at the same grade level, not just in the classroom, and that a student’s belief in their own success was a greater predictor of actual success than the education of their parents, as was previously believed. Rountree urged teachers to stop censoring history, because “The moment we isolate our own truth, we are telling our students to hide their truths, too.”
This was an eye-opening start to the conference, and all four presenters were excellent speakers. I did occasionally struggle to follow along, as the closed captioning was significantly delayed and frequently inaccurate, sometimes stopping altogether and skipping several sentences to get back on track. I look forward to the rest of the conference and discovering more about the theme of thriving together and belonging.