
First Person is where Chalkbeat features personal essays by educators, students, parents, and others thinking and writing about public education.
My story of school refusal and recovery
Weekly meetups at the Detroit Public Library remind my friends and me about the power of IRL connection.
I’m no longer fighting Silicon Valley’s best efforts to capture human attention. Now, I battle boredom, and that’s a winnable fight.
As a teacher, I know ed tech will never compare to building IRL relationships with students.
I can’t help but wonder what my life might have been like if I’d had access to these tools earlier on.
As a school psychologist, I help young people facing hardships. My own upbringing offers perspective.
Here’s what I wish I could say when someone asks, ‘Where are you from?’
Harlem was home. Then a trip to Korea helped me understand the two cultures that shaped me.
Kristin Cahill, a principal in New York City, reflects on a new role for schools in a changing society.
Why do teachers seem to have eyes in the back of their heads? They’ve mastered the art of noticing.
School libraries have been an unfunded mandate in New York. Let’s change that, says student Salma Baksh.
Five years after the pandemic closed schools, some educators remain wistful for before times.
It’s time to stop telling kids to ‘dress up like you’re 100.'
I forgot what was important: getting the kids to learn and understand the material.
I led a school board through COVID. It took a toll on my mental health.
I study early childhood education. Defunding this research will have far-reaching effects.
It hurts to see the U.S. turn its back on my homeland.
Changes out of Washington have only increased the degree of difficulty, writes Chris DeRemer.
Reading passages cannot take the place of reading books.
At home during COVID school closures, I consumed misogynistic content in an endless loop. My brother walked me back from the brink.