Teaching Fiercely: Spreading Joy and Justice in Our Schools

Introduction

Early 2000s

When I began teaching in the early 2000s, “social justice,” “equity,” “ABAR,”¹ and “CR‐SE”² were not buzzwords floating around in public rhetoric, and most certainly were not featured on television or other media channels. Conversations about the “science of reading” had not yet hit public airwaves. The heat behind schools' choices for literacy curriculum took place mostly within academic circles working at universities, not so much between those who worked at schools, with children. If you saw something on TV about reading, or about how children should act, at least in my fledgling teacher world, you were most ...