My name’s Peggy Flanagan, I’m a citizen of the White Earth Nation and my family is the Wolf Clan, and I’m really honored to be here with you. You know I think Tom Rademacher is a pretty amazing guy. And clearly, based on Miss Whitley, is a really powerful teacher who helps young people find their voice. And so I’m honored to also be able to share the stage with them and super psyched that this was sold out, which is the closest that either of us will probably be to being rock stars.
So, a sold out show at Icehouse, yeah! Whoo!
So some of you may be like, why is the girl from Glee here talking about education? I was a little bit like Rachel Berry growing up. There’s nothing ironic about show choir. It’s why I went to school every day which is what we’ll talk about here in a second. But I grew up in St. Louis Park which if you don’t know is like God’s country.
So, grew up in St. Louis Park and there weren’t a whole lot of Native students. I’m sure you’re surprised. But my mom moved us to St. Louis Park when I was a baby because she knew that I would have access to good schools, stable neighborhoods, and an opportunity to thrive. And I believe that my community was really influential in my development but I’ll also tell you that I struggled as well.
I didn’t have a teacher who looked like me until I was a sophomore in college. And growing up I had those handful of teachers, Peter Redmond who is a teacher at St. Louis Park High School, who changed my life. Who helped me find my voice. He was the only teacher of color at St. Louis Park High School. And he truly saw and heard students. And he continues to be an incredible mentor and active cheerleader in my life to this very day and this is the power of educators.
But I also know a handful of teachers who were fairly destructive in my life as well, and did not handle me with care. And so during my education journey, and I’m going to tell you all a secret. Shhh, okay? Keep it here and on the TPT website. But, I graduated from high school with a 1.75 GPA. And I did really well, I did really well in speech, in english, in creative writing, in math classes where I had teachers who used different ways to teach instead of just being up at the front of the room and asking you to write down problems right on your paper. But it was the teachers that I built a relationship with and were able to really see who I was as a young native woman who were why I survived.
And those teachers in particular in the arts, and music, and theater, who got me through. And so I went to St. Cloud State my freshman year. And coming from a community like St. Louis Park where we kind of all just hung out together, and going to St. Cloud State where it was very clear at the time that the African-American students hung out, the Asian students hung out, the Native students hung out, the White students hung out And I was like where do I go? Because that was not my experience. And there were also folks, I started having pictures of American Indian mascots printed off the interwebs hung on my door and it was like, what? And it took me a while for it to get like, oh that’s derogatory! Right? And then started putting, there were like a couple articles about Native students on campus who were holding pow-wows and community meetings and someone was cutting those out and putting those also on my door with racist comments about American Indians. And you know, I went to the administration and I complained a couple of times and we figured out who it was. But it wasn’t until the last time we went to the administration I said, wow this is going to make a really powerful letter to the editor in the St. Cloud Times. And that they actually took any action about it. And I didn’t really know what threat I was making at that point right? I just was like I think this is what you say right? And so from there I was in the show choir, shocking. And my choir teacher was leaving St. Cloud State. And he said you can either stay here.. he said “you can either go to the University of Minnesota, or you can come with me to the University of Michigan. This is not a safe school for you for a whole host of reasons” and I went to the University of Minnesota. And the first class that I walked into was Intro to American Indian Studies with Dr. Brenda Child at the front of the room who looked just like me. And it changed everything. I was in a classroom surrounded by other American Indian students being taught by an American Indian educator and my whole life changed. Suddenly I was a sponge and I wanted to know everything.
I took honors level coursework for fun and for the first time was told that I was smart. And that I should start taking graduate level courses as an undergrad by Dr. Brenda Child.
Several folks that I know who are Indigenous or people of color have a similar story. That things don’t sort of fall into place, they didn’t fit until they got to college. If they got to college.
What an incredible loss of young people who do not feel seen, or heard, or valued. Now I had teachers who were not of color, who were incredibly instrumental in my life, but I can’t tell you the difference that it made to just have a teacher who knew who I was and knew where I came from. And frankly, challenged me to say, you are here, you have a responsibility to other Native folks who are not here. And that was just a different way to look at my education.
So I graduated with a degree in child psychology and American Indian studies, and I went on to the Divison of Indian Work as my first job out of college. And my job was to help bridge the gap between the community and Minneapolis public schools.
Now like easy right? This was like done and done. No, so it was a hard job. I was 23 at the time. And you know, really saw for the first time how families of color and Native families were treated when they walked into school buildings. And I could stand there for a loving time before anyone would talk to me right? And I’m a fairly assertive person right? But for families who had a traumatic experience, boarding schools are one generation removed from my family, that is tramau still within itself. And when folks are not kind, when they are not welcoming, we’re telling families what we expect of them frankly. So it was through that process. Carol Johnson was the superintendent at the time, who was also my superintendent when I went to St. Louis Park High School, who used to give me rides home from school after Student Council. Shocker, I was on Student Council. She was great. I gave her a call, I didn’t know that you don’t usually just call up the superintendent, be like, Hey I got this new job, I need you help, right? But she put me on a couple of committees that I was clearly way in over my head, but realized then how the district worked, or frankly didn’t work. And spent about six months sort of all during this time. I had also worked and volunteered on the Wellstone for Senate campaign in 2002 which also made me go, Oh electoral politics can be a force for good! Whoo! And so that’s all happening. It’s like, well if there’s never been an American Indian on the school board before and we’re not have our issues frankly really listened to we got to do something about that. And spent about six months trying to find that person.
And like, weird, American Indians didn’t want to be part of a government structure, you know like we’ve always had a really positive relationship with the government. Yeah, like just saying just sign this, what does it say, it doesn’t matter its fine. So that took a while.
And then we had this event at the Indian Center down here on Franklin. And it was a community meeting to talk about education. I was like, really excited and fired up. And Clyde Bellecourt for those of you who, folks know who Clyde Bellecourt is, from the American Indian Movement? So he just finished giving one of these like, with the blood of Geronimo running through our veins! Kind of like big speech, like mic drop. And then folks were like does anyone else have anything and you never like Yep! You know? And I was, I said, Yeah I sure do! Uh, so just wondering if anyone wants to run for the school board, if you do you should come talk to me, thank you very much. And then I sat down. And at that point folks were like, why don’t you do it? I was like What? No! That’s not what i meant at all!I don’t have any kids, I’m like 24. Ugh, no. That’s probably a bad idea. And then after talking to folks in the community I was like What the heck? Right? Like, I’m not going to win so at least we’re going to talk about the issues that are really important in the community right?
We’re going to talk about poverty, we’re going to talk about the opportunity gap and how young people don’t see themselves reflected in their curriculum. And you know, surprise suprise, people actually cared about those things. And I remember a high ranking elected official at the time said to me, you know Peggy you really should stop talking about poor children because you make people uncomfortable and it’s hard for folks to connect with you. I was like wow well you know if folks don’t like what I’m talking about they just probably just don’t have to vote for me so I don’t know. And so we ran a really grassroots campaign and registered voters and went to all the folks. You know the places where people would like, don’t bother these people don’t vote and I’m like I am those people so I should go there.
And we were able to do some pretty great things in Minneapolis public schools with our memorandum of agreement between the American Indian community and the district and we’re still working on it, we’re still moving. But sort of through that experience, and a full host of others I got to Wellstone Action as the job that I had before CDF and ran the Native American Leadership Program and taught folks across the country at how to organize and run for office and work on issues that were of importance to them. And that led me to CDF. And CDF, Children’s Defense Fund Minnesota, has this program called Freedom Schools. How many of you have heard of Freedom Schools?
Yeah! All right, good. So Freedom Schools is thi, primarily a summer learning and literacy program for students K-eight. And the purpose of Freedom Schools is to have young people fall in love with learning. And the way that we do that is by having curriculum that looks like the students in the classroom, books that are written by and for students of color, and by having servant leader interns whoa re the educators, who are in the classroom around young people. It’s very powerful. And focus primarily on the African-American community, and we also have Latino Freedom Schools. And the overwhelming majority of students who go through our program, 87% of our kids who go through Freedom Schools either maintain or accelerate their reading level over the summer. 87%. (Audience Applauds).
And so when we talk about like man we just don’t know how to reach these kids we totally do know how to reach these kids right? It’s that at times we lack the political will to do what necessary. To not talk about diversity but to talk about an anti-racist classroom. That’s a different kind of conversation and that whats Freedom Schools were born out of right? Sort of out of the Civil Rights Movement and now in the way that they’ve been created by Marian Wright Edelman 20 years ago was to create alternative spaces where our young people could feel valued, heard, respected, and could fall in love with learning. And so when I was brought onto CDF, part of my job was to create American Indian Freedom Schools. Again I was like, easy. Right? No, not easy but I would say that Superintendent Bernadeaia Johnson who is here… was incredibly instrumental in helping us to create American Indian Freedom Schools. So we had the first American Indian Freedom Schools, Focus Freedom Schools this past summer. We had one site that was K-five at the Division of Indian Work, was our partner. And then another site which was six-12 at the American Indian Center. And had a young man named Nation Wright who was a senior when I was elected to the school board in 2005, who now I have to remember is a grown man with a family.
I hired him and brought him on board and he has started to run this program. We now are at three sites after school. So we are at Andersen Open Community School, we are at Sanford Middle School, and Emily Palmer is here who’s the principal. Whoo! Yeah!
And we’re at South High. And we we’re running after school program and then we’ll be moving into, again, our summer Freedom School program. And I tell you that whole thing because I’ve sort of watched this come full circle in my life. I am now the mom of a two and a half year old. Her name is Siobhan. Siohban Myinnggan Hellendrung. So the first day of school is always going to be a little rough on her teachers as she confidently walks into the room and asserts who she is. But I care about this more than I ever did before When you turn on the television and you see images of American Indians or you go to a movie or you turn on the Sunday football and see a particular football team with a particular mascot, the images that we see of American Indians are perverted images. It is not who we are an Indian people. We do not see images of contemporary American Indian people, and that’s why programs like Freedom School where our young people see other leaders from teh community who look like them who care about them who are doing community building work, are reading books and who they are and where they come from and modern day heroes that is powerful stuff. It is very powerful stuff. And this is what I want for my child, and frankly for all children.
To be able to see folks who look like them, who value them, who are doing good work in the community that they can aspire to be like. And you know, I’ll just do a quick aside, I posted Viola Davis won last night, an Emmy Award, Whoo!
And I posted this image of part of her speech, is that she talked about women of color are just as powerful as actresses. They just simply lack the opportunity. One of my sort of conservative relatives, I have them, believe it or not, conservative relatives posted under it a link to the Wikipedia page of all of the African-Americans who have ever won Emmys before. And I was like huh I;m not exactly sure what you’re trying to tell me with this but the first African American woman to win as lead actress that matters. But it also matters that there are no images, I don’t turn on the TV and see an American Indian person, ever. Right?
And my daughter just doesn’t have that in her life and popular culture and media and so that is part of I think our role as people who care about children and as educators is to provide those spaces and that opportunity.
And how many of you are teachers? Awesome. So thank you for being here and valuing young people and seeing them and working to create anti-racist space within your school. It is challenging, it makes people uncomfortable. And in Minnesota man do we have a hard time talking about race. My husband is from New Ulm. I didn’t think I’d marry an Eagle Scout from New Ulm but it happened. And we’ll talk about some tough issues, and you know what inevitably happens is someone’s like who wants pie? Right? Which is lik the response that we have in Minnesota when we talk about tough stuff. Young people will not let you do that. And so in this space in your classroom, to create that welcoming community where young people can be heard and tell their truths, it took me 19 years to be able to tell my truth. And I’m still telling my truth and it’s still uncomfortable. But we have answers, right?
We have answers of young people feeling heard and valued, reflected in their curriculum. Being intentional. Some of you have ears, we have a teacher shortage, right? Being intentional about growing new teacher. It doesn’t happen on accident that people decide to be educators right? And we have a responsibility to the folks in our classroom and to the young people in our lives in particular of color to say this is a pathway for you. That’s also why the additional layer within Freedom Schools that I hope that we are able to move. To have young people who are in the classroom who are teaching folks who are just coming up underneath them that say, this is a pathway for me. And we know that that has happened with several of our students but we want to be more intentional about it and hope that you will join Children’s Defense Fund in that work. So in my language, I say chi-miigwetch, big thanks for the opportunity to be here today.