It is no secret that teaching is an ever-evolving profession with new joys and challenges presenting themselves as each day passes. Sometimes, the challenges educators face can feel overwhelming, especially when they wish to teach their students truth and understanding about so-called “controversial” topics like race, class, and climate change, among others. It can be difficult for educators to know where or how to begin.
Thankfully, Lisa Delpit’s book, Teaching When the World is On Fire, is a more than timely resource that helps educators broach these and other topics with grace and ease. It’s an incredible text that offers educators pathways to navigate some of the most challenging and challenged topics in the classroom. Delpit offers authentic, practical, and honest ways for educators and students to work together to have real, approachable ways to engage with these topics that help facilitate learning, understanding, and growth. Whether this is your first or fiftieth year in education, this book is relevant, accessible, and a must-read for all educators.
Holly Spinelli is an advocate for inclusive, antiracist, anti-oppressive education. She teaches English at Monroe-Woodbury High School and S.U.N.Y. Orange County Community College in New York. She is an NCTE Open Educational Resources Fellow. Her article “Our Américas: Writing beyond Borders: Latinx Voices in World Literature” received the NCTE Paul and Kate Farmer English Journal Award (2023). She is the recipient of the 2024 NYSEC Fellow Award, and she led a “This Story Matters” Teacher Corps cohort for creating and contributing book rationales to the NCTE Book Rationales Database (2024). Holly looks forward to continuing to work for and with others in the pursuit of intellectual freedom in her role as an NCTE Primary Sources Rationale Cohort Leader in partnership with the Library of Congress.