I was struck here by the idea that people of color, African Americans go through specific processes to teach their children how to "make it" in a racialized society set up to be against their very culture. This is part of their mandatory parenting lessons. It is very sad to me. Knowing this now, as teachers who have been learning and working so hard to try our best to create learning environments that are culturally and racially inclusive, to check our own biases constantly, to open up and have respectful conversations about race and other issues. Is this enough to help support the parents of students in our room with that "Racial Socialization" work? How can we do more? Is it possible to do more, respectfully?

When you take this understanding and then view the educational system through that lense, seeing how with every move, parenting choice, interaction people from the non-dominant culture are set up to be in opposition to the "standard". Many have learned how to socialize themselves and their children to be able to get along inside this standard but they will never truly feel welcomed inside a system not set up for them. As Laura asked above, how can we as teachers help schools to overcome this fact? To as she writes "move forward"?

This reminds me how how in Reggio, after the war, when the community wanted to rebuild they asked themselves, how to we want to educate our children first, what do we think is important to include in their education, which we all seemed to agree was inspiring. They included aspects that cared for the WHOLE child. the education was NOT situated only within the school's walls but there was such fluidity between the community and the students that the education was of the children and the community. They saw that welcoming children into and as an automatic member of the community was the way to foster a healthier, more cohesive, successful community as a whole. This seems to speak to that desire, and the fact that is not how the schools and the educational system is viewed here currently. But to take a look at the schools, it is impossible to not look at the community, even as Brofenbrenner's systems points out - the community has direct impact on the children and they on their community. They are wholes that are interlinked and inseparable.

The Exosystem and the Macrosystem have been a bit harder for me to grasp in general. However, this article has been helpful in the basic understandings and a starting point to be able to extrapolate and apply.