TNP Teacher Alex Parker Published in Edutopia
One of the most incredible things about The Nora Project is the truly stellar educators we’ve come to know and admire. Ranking high among them is Alex Parker, a teacher at Cossitt Avenue Elementary School in LaGrange. Alex attended our first ever summer training camp in the summer of 2018, and immediately distinguished himself with his thoughtful insights, collaborative spirit, and kind heart. In the three years since, he’s been recognized for his work with The Nora Project by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and the Yale Leadership in Education Conference, and he’s presented his research on the benefits of inclusive schools and disability education all over the world. Last year, we hired Alex to create our Pivot Points companion guide--a tool for teachers to layer conversations about intersectional identity into the disability studies lessons of The Nora Project lifecycle programs. That guide will be available to all participating teachers this coming school year. Alex was recently accepted to Johns Hopkins University, where he’ll be working toward a PhD in education.
Today, Alex blazes a trail again, publishing a landmark article in Edutopia reminding other educators about the importance and utility of including disability in the DEI initiatives sweeping the nation’s schools. Alex writes, “It became even clearer to me that many of the struggles of stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination are shared by all marginalized groups, including the disabled. By working toward the liberation of one marginalized community, I could work toward the liberation of many others, too.” Please share his words of wisdom with the educators in your life.
Mr. Parker posing with his students, many wearing their TNP t-shirts, in front of a garden green backdrop that says "The Nora Project" in gold letters on top.
“The curriculum writing I did for TNP used lessons about demystifying disability as a springboard for a broader conversation about the human condition, diversity, and how identities, power, and marginalization intersect. So now I am able to begin my classroom conversations by discussing disability discrimination, which allows me to tie and layer that into other forms of discrimination. Because one in five Americans is disabled, and because most people will experience disability in their lifetimes, it’s a natural jumping-off point for these complex discussions.”
Want The Nora Project Pivot Points companion guide available in your school? Register to become a participating teacher—time is running out!