Doors of Change
By Neisha Terry Young
Neisha Terry Young is a Graduate Research Assistant and PhD Student in Philadelphia and teaches high school.
Last year I was one of only two Black teachers at a high school in New Jersey. It was approaching February, and I realized that nothing was planned to recognize and celebrate Black History Month, so I decided to spearhead a Black History Month door decorating competition.
I was petrified. What if the other teachers did not buy into the project? Would my door be the only decorated door in the competition?
Then I realized: it was not about me. It was about giving voice to the Black students sitting in our classrooms. It was about allowing them to know that they were seen, that they were celebrated, and that their history—.our shared history—.mattered. It was about honoring and centering the identity of my students.
So I mobilized the students and got them invested in promoting and implementing our very first Black History Month door decorating competition.
For two weeks students joyfully decorated their classroom doors, using the medium to express what Black history symbolized to them. While their doors varied in style and focus, during those two weeks all of the students in the building learned that Black history is a shared history, and Black joy is a shared joy.
When we shuttered the school in March, we left our doors standing as silent monuments to what we had accomplished in a space that had previously ignored the identity of our Black students.
We went online, but the fight for social justice continued in our online classroom discussions and activities. In June a student sent me the following message: “You taught me that my voice is something that needs to be heard and something that can change the world if I really put my heart into it. Go show the world what you’ve got. Go change it!”
““It was about giving voice to the Black students sitting in our classrooms. It was about allowing them to know that they were seen, celebrated, and that their history—our shared history—mattered. @NeishaYoung3, PhD candidate #PowerToChangeStories ”
Neisha Terry Young is an immigrant from the Caribbean, and has taught middle and high school in New Jersey and Pennsylvania since 2012. She is pursuing a PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy at Drexel University. @NeishaYoung3
