Thank you to The Nap Ministry

Over the last week, I’ve been participating in chain emails: you know, you send to 20 people you know, who send to 20 people they know…. And in these chains, you also reply to someone you may or may not know, with an inspiring poem or quote. And it’s been inspiring. It’s taken me back to my days teaching poetry, it’s taken my breath away, it’s made me laugh, it’s brought tears to my eyes. And it’s made me grateful for so many people in the world, some whom I’m reconnecting with, and some whom I don’t even know but now deeply appreciate.

I just wanted to share one gift that came to me through this e-chain. I’m slow to whatever’s viral or even happening on social media, so perhaps you’re already familiar with The Nap Ministry. Here are some sample posts:

The Nap Ministry really resonates with me. “Grind culture” is brilliant because it’s true.

What’s the opposite of white supremacy and the patriarchy? Rest and soul-tending.

And I think we all need t-shirts that say:

“Stop playing in my face.

– Black folk wisdom”

I hope you are getting some rest, regularly.

From fear of covid-19 to covid-19ism

It’s reasonable to feel anxious and even afraid of covid-19 as a health and overall wellness threat.

What we need to be mindful of is when our fear becomes a phobia that’s actually an ism. What’s that? As opposed to arachnophobia or claustrophobia, a phobia that has become an ism is one that is backed by institutional power and societal norms: like homophobia, Islamophobia and transphobia. While all phobias are real conditions, phobias that are really isms are anxiety disorders that are reinforced and fueled by explicit policy and implicit social permission.

Thus, it may be more accurate and helpful to talk about sexual orientation-ism, Islam-ism and gender-ism (across the gender spectrum), if we want to end these forms of systemic discrimination, brutality and oppression.

What does this have to do with covid-19? Well, I’ve been thinking about how individual fears about covid-19 have aggregated into a collective fear (although research indicates that you’re more likely, if you identify as a Democrat–and I’m going to go out on a limb here, to extend that to liberal or progressive–to see the coronavirus as “a real threat,” so this may pertain more to left-leaning communities), and how that collective fear has been manifesting in a way that strongly resemble isms in action.

Here, I want to focus on covid-19-ism enacted at a very local level, in human interactions among people who would probably tell you “there’s not a prejudiced bone in my body.” (And once again, I just need to affirm that they are correct. Because there is no “prejudice bone.”)

Let’s talk about physical distancing. First of all, way to go, people! We’re all learning a new skill and consciousness in real time. No swimming pool test before the open water exam, to put it in SCUBA terms.

Now, n my daily runs since the order to “stay at home” (which allows for daily exercise, maintaining 6′ between yourself and others), I’ve noticed that when a couple or group is walking together, they walk abreast of each other on opposite sides of the road or trail, often maintaining their positions regardless of who else may be coming up behind or heading toward them. This leaves the center of the road for those others, which may involve dodging a car coming around a blind curve, or, on a single or double track trail, physical contact for everyone because there isn’t enough space for three people to pass.

It occurred to me that some folks observing the 6′ distance are mindful for themselves and their own, but at the exclusion of anyone else. As if physical distancing is what we’re doing to avoid you. As if what happens to you isn’t our problem. (Who said you could be out here while we’re using this space, anyway?) As if we don’t even recognize you and your right to be safe, too. Sound like the attitude underlying an ism to you? For example, as enacted through the ban on transgender individuals serving in the military, all of the travel bans targeting Muslim-majority countries, and the ethnoracist redlining practices that persist in the US.

Right now you may be thinking that I’m reading a bit much into folks trying to physical distance. Possibly, yes, and I believe this is the hardest level of ism to address: the level that informs our everyday actions, that we justify and admonish others not to make such a big deal out of (just run in the middle of the road or into the bushes, Alison! no one means any harm), and that we therefore freely practice to the point where our ism skills are reflexive and well-honed for the next opportunity to cast ourselves against them.

Which brings me to the other, entangled perspective that seems to underlie how people are physical distancing. It’s not just self-care and concern: it’s self-care and concern assuming self-innocence. There’s a distinct feeling of maintaining distance for myself in case you’re infected. As if the problem is those infectious others. Now, obviously everyone has to catch it from someone else. Yet what that also means is that some of us have to be some of those elses.

Yet we’re practicing physical distancing as if we are good and healthy. As if it’s them who are germy, gross and potentially lethal. Again, sound like an ism, anyone? This presumption of self-purity is at heart of white nationalism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia (or maybe we should call it xenocism).

Which brings me to wondering whether we’re enhancing our own ism tolerance and capacity during this outbreak by practicing covid-19-ism:

• Thinking of us, over/against/instead of them because we’ve
• Decided (rationally or not) that they’re the danger we should protect our (untainted) selves from

It’s not that thinking of ourselves and our own is wrong. It’s human. It’s that we can do that and not dehumanize others. And it’s better not just for those others, but for us, too, to expand our community of we to encompass as many (human) beings as possible. If we want to get through this pandemic, we have to care about our collective health and well-being, including people we don’t know and may never meet.

We have to own our part in this outbreak. This is the advice coming from healthcare professionals everywhere: act as if you have the coronavirus. That’s right. Assume you’re the infected person. Then, discern how to interact with or among others. That means practicing physical distancing for us mutually (not just for me to keep my distance from you, you unfortunate obstacle to my safety, health and well-being).

Which brings me back to genderism, Islamism, sexual orientationism, ableism, ageism, anti-Semitism, classism, ethnoracism and white nationalism. If you’re opposed to any (or all) isms, try practicing anti-covid-19-ism with me. That is, engaging with others with your mutual well-being in mind, realizing that you’re a potential threat and resource, and that they are, too. All this in a diverse community, which is to say we’re not identical or equal. On my runs, I’m actively trying not to presume that everyone has the same physical abilities (including hearing and balance), trail-sharing experience or burdens (social and emotional) to carry during this time.

And, next level, see if your susceptibility to covid-19-ism provides any insight, compassion or even empathy for people who believe in and/or act to advance other isms.

What?! Empathize with white supremacists and homophobes? Or even the Millennials who started the “Boomer Remover” meme (who may not have been motivated by hate, but nonetheless are playing into ageism, which may yet actually impact access to treatment during this pandemic)?

Yes. Not to “forgive and forget.” But to acknowledge that any ism is a campaign that requires people to advance it. And that, therefore, we have to deal with people as people in order to halt and redirect the campaign. Because while it’s vital to go hard on issues of equity and inclusion, it’s generally not effective to be inhumane to people, whether you’re for an ism or against it. Recognizing my own capacity to ism (in this case, to advance covid-19-ism) can help me to shift my interaction with someone who is, knowingly or not, advancing ageism: from treating them as if they’re a problem for me to eradicate, to engaging them as someone who, like me, is motivated by concerns and fears; and, like me, sometimes acts unhelpfully and hurtfully to alleviate personal anxiety, especially when others seems to be moving in the same direction. Finding empathy doesn’t change my goal of stopping ageist behaviors and promoting a campaign of anti-ageism. It helps me to distinguish the issue from the person, which I too often sweep up altogether in the dragnet of my sense of justice. It reminds me that I’m not “better” than them, and this isn’t about me versus them. This is about us.

* Thank you to my colleague MM, for reframing “Islamophobia.”

Sharing forward, with gratitude

“The goal [in stressful, uncertain times like now] is to find balance in the things you’re thinking. If you feel the worst image taking shape, make yourself think of the best image.”

–David Kessler, author of  On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief through the Five Stages of Loss and Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief.

So I’ll start with gratitude for some increased connections, as a direct result of the increased isolation right now. Thank you, colleagues, who are a community of tremendous heart, mind, conviction and action. I really appreciate being connected to you.

Thank you, CY, for sending “That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief,” which features the interview with Kessler from which I quoted above. Kessler advises that during this pandemic:

You can also think about how to let go of what you can’t control. What your neighbor is doing is out of your control. What is in your control is staying six feet away from them and washing your hands. Focus on that.

Finally, it’s a good time to stock up on compassion. Everyone will have different levels of fear and grief and it manifests in different ways. A coworker got very snippy with me the other day and I thought, That’s not like this person; that’s how they’re dealing with this. I’m seeing their fear and anxiety. So be patient. Think about who someone usually is and not who they seem to be in this moment.

This really resonated with me, as toilet paper and basic cleaning and first aid supplies are still out of stock in my town. I too readily go to a narrative about selfishness (and even cloak it in righteousness: anger that hospitals and shelters may not be able to purchase these supplies, since households are hoarding. Yes, this may be true, but if I’m being honest, it’s also fuel for my indignation. Which is not helpful to me or to my community).

As I try to “stock up on compassion,” I’m also going to try to stock up on “self-compassion” (for instance, by thinking, “That’s not like me; that’s how I’m dealing with this. I’m seeing my fear and anxiety.“) I’m going to try to be patient with myself, while still holding myself accountable for doing what I can right now. Because, once again, I’m reminded that social justice isn’t just big action IN ALL CAPS against “the system.” It’s about how I and you show up every day. Even when no one else is watching or listening.

* Thanks again to my colleague CY for sharing the article.

Dr. Fauci’s practice of cultural competency

Just reposting two excerpts from Science magazine’s recent interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as an example of cultural competency in practice. While focusing on science–and maybe because he’s focusing on science–Fauci advanced justice and discernment action for the complicated, collective good of a diverse population. That is, by the way, how cultural competency is supposed to work: rather than an end unto itself, cultural competency  should empower us to do our jobs more effectively.

First, during the interview Science magazine asked about how Fauci refers to the coronavirus (aka covid-19):

Q: You have not said China virus. (Trump frequently calls the cause of the spreading illness known as coronavirus disease 2019 a “China virus” or a “Chinese virus.”)

A: Ever.

Q: And you never will, will you?

A: No.

A discussion point with students might be: Why does it matter what we call this coronavirus, from a public health perspective? How could calling it “the Chinese virus” hurt or help scientific and medical research, recommendations and public outreach?

And later in this interview, Fauci demonstrates the “yes, and…” thinking that we need to practice, as a (partisan) debate emerges right now about whether we’re going to protect public health or the economy:

There is a discussion and a delicate balance about what’s the overall impact of shutting everything down completely for an indefinite period of time. So, there’s a compromise. If you knock down the economy completely and disrupt infrastructure, you may be causing health issues, unintended consequences, for people who need to be able to get to places and can’t. You do the best you can. I’ve emphasized very emphatically at every press conference, that everybody in the country, at a minimum, should be following the fundamental guidelines. Elderly, stay out of society in self isolation. Don’t go to work if you don’t have to. Yada, yada, yada. No bars, no restaurants, no nothing. Only essential services. When you get a place like New York or Washington or California, you have got to ratchet it up. But it is felt—and it isn’t me only speaking, it’s a bunch of people who make the decisions—that if you lock down everything now, you’re going to crash the whole society. So, you do what you can do, as best as you can. Do as much physical separation as you can and ratchet it up at the places you know are at highest risk.

We should start with active open-mindededness (also known as science curious thinking) about the admitted complexity of even trying to safeguard people’s health (considering primary, secondary and tertiary physical, mental and emotional threats and risks of the covid-19 pandemic), rather than treating “health” as a simple counterweight to “economics.” It also helps that Fauci knows the value of not groupthink, but leveraging the power of a diverse group to tap different areas of expertise, open up individual perspectives and invite in more possibilities before settling on “what we should do.” Sure, it can feel overwhelming to invite in the complexity (by using “yes, and…” and “however” not just once but over and over in the generative, divergent thinking stage of problem-solving), but that’s because the problem is complex. And starting with either-or can only dumb down and limit all subsequent possibilities.

A discussion practice with students could be, instead of asking them what they think, asking: what are 4-6 possible perspectives on this issue? (That you don’t personally have to believe). Notice your impulse. Intentionally “go wide” and zig-zag with the possibilities. Then: what do you think?

The “NY virus”? Of course not.

Actor Daniel Dae Kim (the Asian guy on Lost, Hawaii Five-O and now New Amsterdam) has the coronavirus.

In his post about that diagnosis last week, Kim expressed gratitude for his health, regret for endangering other people while he was sick but still asymptomatic (and therefore, exposing others to covid-19 as he went about his regular routine) and this request:

“Please stop the prejudice and senseless violence against Asian people. Yes, I’m Asian and, yes, I have coronavirus, but I did not get it from China. I got it in America in New York City. And despite what certain political leaders want to call it, I don’t consider the place where it is from as important as the people who are sick and dying. If I did I would call this thing the New York virus, but that would be silly, right?”

Wishing Kim and everyone else who has, knowingly or not, caught covid-19 safety for themselves and everyone around them, good care and a full recovery.

 

 

Not just distant: Learning and teaching are also different now

As brick and mortar schools transition to e-learning and teaching (and even those that offered recorded lectures or distance learning before may be piloting what that looks like as the only means of teaching and learning now), there are various methods at work:

• Just conduct class as if the students are there. I hear that at least one university has professors and lecturers delivering talks in their regular classroom or halls (now empty).
• Send lessons home for the parents/older siblings/guardians/students themselves to do. (See yesterday’s post for one mom’s viral reaction to how that’s going.)
• Hold class online just like they did in person onsite.
• Hold class online… differently.

Today, I’m just going to focus on those last two bullets with a couple of examples of how distance teaching and learning should be the same and different than however we do it in person.

• An example of doing what you already do is the “back to school” list of supplies, which families ideally receive before their kids need to use these items, along with active outreach communicating that the school realizes these additional items could pose a hardship and/or simply be hard to procure (because right now, workplaces, schools and families are all purchasing more computer equipment than usual. On a related note, there are viable questions about whether all of us can all crowd unfettered onto the internet at the same time). Recognizing the financial strains that may be impacting families:
  • A local school identified families who don’t have internet access at home and purchased routers for them to use. A local university has offered “very lost cost” laptop rentals to its students who need a device.
  • Another school confronted its uncertainty about how to say “we want to help if we can” to families receiving financial assistance from the school, and decided to just say that. I advised that they could also name that they aren’t sure exactly what to say, how to say it or how to be helpful. And that they still wanted to try and, without adding more work for families, welcome feedback.
  • I would add that because it’s typical in independent schools (and, I imagine, universities) that some families are receiving financial assistance from a private network or resource (family trust, relatives and/or a bank loan), and because this pandemic is impacting work and incomes right now, schools may want to consider how to reach out to their full communities. Not because they can help everyone, but because if their motivation is to help families who could use the help, having a fuller picture of which families that includes empowers the school to act more discerningly and impactfully.
• An example of doing things necessarily differently is reconsidering “class participation.” As a colleague shared with me, their child’s university has made video and audio participation in e-classrooms optional so that “kids who aren’t comfortable showing themselves or their surroundings can participate via chat function without penalty.”
  • As someone who heavily prefers to facilitate workshops and working meetings in person, what I’m wondering about is how to do pair-shares and small group breakouts effectively within a group, especially when people have just one device, and maybe limited access within a household to that device. (My colleague tells me that zoom has that capacity, so I’ll be doing some research, and welcome your suggestions.)
• And an example of how complicated it is to advance equity as we pilot e-learning systems: the same university has decided that all classes can be converted to pass/fail. This decision recognizes that distance learning could be harder for some students (who haven’t chosen it) and/or that this could be a difficult time for students (because of covid-19 and other stresses), but apparently there are institutional rewards for taking classes for grades, so kids who can are at an advantage. In order to advance equity, the school would need to work out its overall pass/fail versus grades policy. While many PK-12 schools don’t offer options for individual students regarding whether to be graded or not, the takeaway is thinking through how they’re being assessed, and what makes sense, in terms of flexibility and innovation. And, while we’re at it, what standing assessment policies and practices could use an overhaul, even after classes resume in person.

 

* Thank you to my friend and colleague BF for sharing examples of equity in action in e-education.

 

“Please. Turn it down. Foot off the gas. Leave them be.”

First of all, how are you?

(deep breath)

(exhale)

(repeat)

I’m usually late to the “what’s gone viral” game, so maybe you’ve already seen this video of an Israeli mom, who posted from her car about the experience and impacts of distance-learning in her family when: 

My son had just received a flurry of assignments on WhatsApp. With four kids, I’m part of all these WhatsApp groups. I’m constantly looking at the group name, “Wait a second, which kid is this for? Which class?,” so I don’t make an embarrassing mistake. I said to my son, “What are you supposed to do here?” He looks at me, “Mom, how am I supposed to know?” Then I realized how absurd it all is.

If you haven’t seen her post, take 1m and 32s to watch it.

It’s important to know that Shiri Keningsberg Levi is a special education teacher. So this is a mom whom you might think is even better equipped than the average parent/guardian to implement the home-side of distance-learning.

And yet.

She’s overwhelmed by the pace, volume and expectations that the school-side expertise of education is somehow being seamlessly transferred to families. And she’s resonating with viewers globally.

In addition to exhaling with Levi and hitting “replay,” what can we do, if she’s venting for us, too?

1. Recognize that digital culture has a way of dehumanizing interactions. Yes, even your communications with the students you love, and to the teachers you admire. It’s the default setting of the medium: send into the ether as fast as you can type or record it, then on to the next. We see the results in people’s online “comments” to posts they don’t like. We see it in what people will say in emails and texts to (but not face to face with) each other. We see it in the way that online scheduling stacks meetings, as if we can be in three different places (including virtual spaces) at once. And now we’re seeing it, at least through Levi’s eyes, in the volume of messages each child and their caregivers are supposed to read, process and act on. It’s not just about the messages one teacher is sending: it’s the sum of messages each child and their caregivers is receiving (which require action, response and then on to the next). An analogy here is “pop-up” incidental costs over the course a school year: for a field trip, for a pizza day, for a gift for the teacher, for an additional text in the classroom, for this season’s team t-shirt… even if we try to make each cost “reasonable”–and who determines what’s reasonable?–when you add them all up, it’s definitely no longer reasonable.

2. Make it part of your “stay at home” practice to regularly pause and notice how you are, and ask each other how you’re doing. Especially if you’re busy taking care of others, professionally or personally. (Put your oxygen mask on first, right?) I try to avoid absolute statements, but I think–and feel-it’s fair to say that we’re all on edge. I, for one, can really relate to what Percy Abram, Head of The Bush School and my co-facilitator for the Leaders of Color Professional Learning Community in Seattle, says in this NY Times article,

“All I’ve really known is that the answer to work and to emotional strife has been to work harder and work more,” said Dr. Abram, whose wife, a medical doctor, has stresses of her own. Now he realizes that may not be enough.

“Soon, there is no ‘harder’ and no ‘more,’ and that leaves me with uncertainty I will have to face,” he said. “The city is going to slow down, my meetings will slow down and I will have to slow down and process my emotions.”

A half-marathoner, he has been taking long runs, releasing his tension through sweat and, occasionally, by screaming in the woods where he cannot be heard. He is keeping up with his regular therapy appointments. “That is something that I will not let go of,” he said.

3. Notice your reaction when Levi says, “Enough, guys, teachers, dial it down, lower expectations.” Are you thinking: YES! and NO, we can’t! Exactly. Are you feeling:

• the need to be perfect? You can’t get distance learning wrong (even as you may be learning it on the job)! You can’t fail the kids!
• a sense of urgency? We can’t lose a minute of learning!
• defensive? Great, now the parents are blaming us for trying?
• but teaching is teaching! what are we supposed to do instead?

Right now, I’m drawing on Tema Okun’s characteristics of white supremacy culture (2001), which also include:

• quantity over quality (as in, keep sending new assignments)
• only one right way (as in, how we did things in classrooms together is how we’ll do things when we’re online)

My point here is not that you are a white supremacist. It’s that the “rules” that advance white supremacy are ingrained in US educational culture and that we are experiencing viscerally right now in this crisis how unsustainable and inhumane that culture is. Our culture, the one that we’re practicing right now. I don’t hear Levi yelling at teachers. I hear Levi yelling at white supremacist expectations that aren’t helping anyone right now, including white educators and white families.

Rather than “lowering expectations” (which is part of an “only one right way” mentality), I think we have an opportunity and responsibility to adjust expectations. If students don’t have musically trained teachers, other musicians (to play the other parts of a score) or even the instruments from school to practice on, can’t they still learn music? By, for instance, being assigned to take musical interludes during their day to listen to various genres (not just their “go to” artists and songs)? Building a broader musical literacy now may enhance their skills and sensibilities when they come back together at school.

4. And on that note, we should all–educators, parents/guardians, educators who are parents/guardians and students–consider: what is valuable for students to learn now? What is, in Levi’s words, worth “bothering with,” especially given the teaching and learning circumstances we’re in? I’m thinking of the opportunity to teach math that matters to our values and how we live right now. Of mindfulness practice and social media literacy, which are too often relegated to the corners of the school day. Of sustained silent reading, which I miss from my elementary schools days (and which I credit to this day for my reading skills, my breadth of literary consumption and even my becoming an English teacher). Of the independent learning projects that are usually reserved for 12th graders at the end of the year–as if a 6 year old doesn’t have something they may want to learn about, that family could help them with?

As you find your takeaways from Levi’s video and from your own experiences of e-learning right now, I’ll end with this: “leaving [the students] be” doesn’t mean giving up on education right now. It means taking a breath (or several) and regrounding in core educational values as we model and engage children and youth in learning as living.

* Thank you, Percy. As ever, I learn, in head and heart, from your leadership.

Quote of the day

Do you want to make a point, or do you want to make a difference?

–Tom Friedman, author and political commentator

You may have heard me (frequently) quote Orpheus Crutchfield, founder of Strategenius, saying “Do you want to be right, or effective?” 

I also appreciate Friedman’s framing. Both are asking: Is this about you or the issue? (Or, is this about your relationship to whomever you’re speaking, or is it about the issue?)

If your response is: both!

Yeah, I get it.

And sometimes we have to prioritize one over the other for the issue, for the relationship and for our own growth.

Looking for a math/science class for this project!

Start with this article: “Why outbreaks like coronavirus spread exponentially, and how to ‘flatten the curve.’”

The information is important, and the graphics are really helpful for understanding. For me, the use of infographics underscores:

• The importance of diversifying how we share information (so that, in this case, people who learn more effectively through words and people who learn more effectively visually can both get some essential information about how covid-19 could progress in the US)–and then there are, of course, auditory learners and other learning modes to consider); coupled with
• The responsibility and opportunity for each of us to be variously literate (that is, while we may have a preferred mode of learning, it will serve us to be adept across as many modalities as possible, for when information may not be available as we prefer); and
• The need for learning to be applicable. In Understanding by Design, McTighe and Wiggins (2005) refer to this as “transfer application”: the ability to implement what we learn in our lives in meaningful ways.

Now to my request for a math/science class:

I would love to see a set of infographics about supply hoarding. As toilet paper is still out of stock (or instantaneously purchased) in my town, I’m wondering what supply could look like (assuming current production and supply distribution, which various companies are assuring, is not the problem) if, in the months ahead:

• A minority of people keep severely over-stocking
• Most households are somewhat over-stocking
• All households bought as they did before
• All households bought just a little less, but still enough to cover what they need (so that, for example, if hospitals and homeless shelters needed more supplied, they could actually get them).

I’d love to see information like this generated by students because we’re all being impacted, one way or another, by everyone else’s purchasing power (not just now, but in ways that are amplified right now), and that seems to be fueling sense of hopelessness, helplessness, isolation and fear. And studying this is a way to understand it and find agency.

And I’d love to see information like this getting out into the world so that, more people can frame their buying choices and actions with not just a sense of urgency right now, but a bigger picture of how our access to resources could get better—or worse. And that how we act, in a time of great uncertainty, is at least to some degree within our power to control.

(And if you’re wondering, I did ask the author of the article if they have an analysis of buying/over-buying in the works. They said it was a “great suggestion. That could make for an interesting and useful article.” Which I take to “maybe” or “no.” Hence, I’m crowd-sourcing!)

In a time of crisis, we need SEL+ in leadership

What do I mean by SEL+ (social and emotional learning plus)?

SEL+ is SEL with core commitments to equity and inclusion*.

* also known as cultural competency

But wait! SEL is all about caring for other people and oneself (or, as the Institute for SEL frames it: the intrapersonal and the interpersonal), and isn’t that inclusion?

Not entirely.

Let me start by saying that this is not a critique of SEL. Rather, it’s about clarifying that SEL is vital, especially in leadership and especially in times of crisis (when we may not think we can afford to think of others).

And if leadership is committed to justice, we need to integrate discernment and capacity to act at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, societal and institutional levels. Because it’s never just about you and me in this community. It’s about you and me and:

• the different statuses,
• systemically-activated privileges/disadvantages and
• access to resources

that attach to our identities in this community.

In other words, if my goal is to include you, being nice to you may not suffice. Because being nice (which matters at the interpersonal level, and isn’t always itself easy, given cultural differences in what “being nice” looks like) doesn’t address the cultural and systemic hurdles that may be excluding you.

Unfortunately, SEL–let alone SEL+ (i.e. cultural competency) has never been a requirement for leaders in any field that I can think of: business, government, healthcare (although the healthcare field pioneered cultural competency)… or even education. And we sorely need it. Case in point:

At a White House briefing a few days ago, Trump told reporters:

“China was putting out information which was false that our military gave this to them. That was false. Rather than having an argument, I said, ‘I have to call it where it came from, it did come from China.’

So I think it’s a very accurate term.”

Leadership responsibilities for cultural competency/SEL+:

1. having direct, difficult conversations with colleagues,
2. noticing one’s mindset (in this case, “tit for tat“), and
3. discerning whether you want to be “right” or effective (Crutchfield, 2013).

Not surprisingly, predominantly Asian and Asian-American, and specifically Chinese and Chinese-American, leaders have spoken out about the problem with calling covid-19 a “Chinese virus”:

“It’s racist and it creates xenophobia,” Harvey Dong, a lecturer in Asian American and Asian diaspora studies with the University of California at Berkeley, told The [Washington] Post. “It’s a very dangerous situation.”

Leadership responsibilities for cultural competency/SEL+:

1. recognizing the intrapersonal, interpersonal, societal and institutional arenas of what’s been said, including
2. noticing when you personally don’t feel affected/don’t think it’s a big deal (as game designer and activist David Gaider says, “Privilege is when you think something is not a problem because it’s not a problem to you personally”), and
3. discerning what to say or do about it.

According to The Washington Post, in response to being informed of the dangers of his word choice:

The president dug in on his use of the term “Chinese virus” to describe the novel coronavirus that was first detected in Wuhan, China, late last year and did not rule out directing economic retaliation toward Beijing.

“Thank you all for being here, and we continue our relentless effort to defeat the Chinese virus,” Trump said near the top of his combative appearance before reporters at the White House.

And apparently, he made sure to repeat those words by personally updating the notes for his remarks, as captured below:

Leadership responsibilities for cultural competency/SEL+:

1. actively practicing, practicing and practicing growth mindset and design thinking, which require openness to feedback at the level of actively soliciting it, not just tolerating it if people feel it’s urgent enough and that they’re safe enough and capable of providing it to you;
2. recognizing when, even if you didn’t intend it, you had a hurtful impact–in this case, not just hurtful on an interpersonal level, but also hurtful at local, global, systemic levels;
3. being fluent in systems-thinking and language, including understanding what xenophobia and racism mean, and not taking these necessary terms personally;
4. once again, discerning whether you want to be right or effective; and
5. whether in this instance or the next. being prepared to repair–i.e. saying you’re sorry and offering what you can do to halt or undo the damage and avoid inflicting it in the future (with a core commitment to justice, this requires thinking through and offering not just what you personally will do, but also what you recommend and will lead communities and institutions to do).

Yeah, we need social and emotional PLUS leadership, and not just in the federal government. In every community.

To further define what that means…

According to CASEL, social and emotional competencies comprise:

• Self-awareness
• Self-management
• Social awareness
• Relationship skills
• Responsible decision-making

Blink defines cultural competency as:

“not a state at which one arrives; rather it is a process of learning, unlearning, and relearning… throughout a lifetime” (AEA, 2011) to “bring into check power imbalances, engage in respectful and dynamic partnerships with others, and hold systems and structures accountable” (Tervalon and Garcia) for equity and inclusion. Cultural competency comprises:

• Intentionally growing oneself;
• Cultivating relationships with others;
• Designing one’s environment and context “toward justice” (Parker, 1871);
• Learning and practicing language, tools and skills

to advance equity and inclusion, for mutual individual, community and institutional thriving at the “micro, to mezzo and macro” levels (Chavez, Tervalon, & Murray-Garcia, 2012) of a community.

(Note: This definition distills principles from AEA’s definition of “cultural competency” and Tervalon et al.’s “cultural humility,” even as these two distinct terms are sometimes used to critique or dispel each other. Whatever language you choose to use should serve your intention and aspiration, be denotatively clear, recognize connotations, be useful and owned collectively through practice. All words can become “problematic”: but the quest is not for “perfect” language, rather to arc ever closer to justice, which inevitably means that our words do matter, and should progress with–not hold up–our work.)

Integrate these definitions, and you get something like:

Self- and social awareness (CASEL) “not as state[s] at which one arrives; rather [as] a process of learning, unlearning, and relearning… throughout a lifetime” (AEA, 2011) to “bring into check power imbalances, engage in respectful and dynamic partnerships with others, and hold systems and structures accountable” (Tervalon and Garcia) for equity and inclusion. Cultural competency comprises:

• “Self-managing” (CASEL) and intentionally growing oneself;
• Cultivating relationships with others;
• Designing one’s environment and context “toward justice” (Parker, 1871);
• Learning and practicing language, tools and skills in relationships and “responsible decision-making” (CASEL)

to advance equity and inclusion, for mutual individual, community and institutional thriving at the “micro, to mezzo and macro” levels (Chavez, Tervalon, & Murray-Garcia, 2012) of a community.

The point is that this is not a binary in which you either support SEL or cultural competency.

Please no. I get it: the cultural message that we’re always supposed to do more. I say dive into the core of who you are and enhance that practice, because cultural competency/SEL+ is a means, not an end.

This is to say that any of our core values need to be integrated, not added on. I see SEL and cultural competency as an example of this: SEL is at the core of cultural competency, and incomplete without an intentional core commitment to equity and inclusion. It’s like the chicken and the egg: with the chicken in the egg in the chicken in the egg in the chicken in the egg…

And how to integrate a leadership practice of cultural competency/SEL+?

1. Allocate the time for leadership to learn and practice.
2. Articulate the core CC/SEL+ practices of leadership. (See above, “Leadership responsibilities for cultural competency/SEL+,” for starters.)
3. Invest in professional growth, including coaching.
4. Hold yourselves accountable, through “soft” and “hard” metrics. (exs. “soft”: 360 feedback; “hard”: under your leadership, you should see disparities among different constituent groups’ experiences and outcomes reducing).