On this episode of the podcast we have a conversation about what a more humanized classroom would look like with Paul France. Paul's first piece of advise, "You have to have a belief in other people's truth."
Paul is an openly gay teacher and advocate for marginalized groups whose work we came across when he wrote an article about how white male teachers can be better allies (https://paulemerich.com/2018/08/06/how-can-white-male-teachers-be-better-allies-for-people-of-color/).
This sparked a conversation about how people who have privilege can be better allies to people who do not and he started out by explaining how we must accept that other people have a different truth than our own, but we must understand that both truths are valid. To us this means we must as people refrain from trying to validate our own truths by undermining or discrediting the truths of others.
Paul gives his 5 As for being a better ally to marginalized groups:
Awareness, Acceptance, Amplification, Advocacy, Accountability
And when asked what advocacy looks like he stated the importance of advocating for people in the way they desire which requires us to ask people what they need. This is great advice no matter who you are fighting for or what cause you are championing.
We're so grateful to Paul for giving his time to our listeners and if you'd like to check out his work you can click on the links below!
https://paulemerich.com/
https://twitter.com/paul_emerich
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