I was in fifth grade typing on my Apple MacIntosh computer when a teacher impacted my life.
The assignment that day was simple: write a "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue" poem. I don't remember what I wrote or what inspired me that day. My ambitions back then mostly involved lunch, recess and gym class — not academics. But I do remember Mrs. Coleman's reaction.
"Wow, Myron!" she said, as I perked up in my little plastic chair in the computer room. "This is really good!"
She was a Black woman and a teacher at a predominantly white school, one of the few adults in the building who looked like me. Her presence alone was supportive.
Her words that afternoon, however, strengthened my internal resolve to consider a future as a writer.
While the conversation around the Minneapolis school district's recently adopted contract provision that aims to retain more teachers of color — who are largely the youngest, least tenured and most vulnerable — became a lightning rod for political forces throughout the country in June, I thought about the kids. The kids who look like me. The kids who will benefit most from seeing teachers like Mrs. Coleman.
"It can be a national model, and schools in other states are looking to emulate what we did," Edward Barlow, a band teacher at Anwatin Middle School and a member of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers executive board, told the Star Tribune in June. "Even though it doesn't do everything that we wanted it to do, it's still a huge move forward for the retention of teachers of color."
The battle in a district where 60% of the enrollment consists of students of color and just 16% of the tenured teachers are teachers of color is familiar in a place with a history of acting against the interests of BIPOC students.