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ESSAY 3THE POWER OF IMAGEKali Thorne LaddExecutive Director, KairosPDXAt the age of 4, Jesse was suspendedand eventually kicked out of his preschoolclassroom. At the age of 5, hedoesn’t know whether he’s ready forkindergarten or not. Neither do his parents; theyjust know that he’s “bad.”And so begins the familiar narrative, onethat says Black boys are more likely to getsuspended or expelled from school forsubjective offenses, such as insubordination,disobedience, disruption. The same narrativeshows their kindergarten suspension rates ashigh as 10 percent. For Black boys, this narrativeincludes the reality that less than 1 percent ofteachers in Oregon look like them and only40 percent of students who look like them aremeeting benchmarks in math at third grade.TIME FOR A NEW NARRATIVEThere’s no such thing as a “bad” child. As youread this, digest it; let it sink in. Children areinherently brilliant, capable and creative beings.Harvard research tells us that 700-1,000 neuralconnections are made per second in the firstyear of a child’s life. 1 The brain grows at a rapidclip. A newborn’s brain is about 25 percentof its approximate adult weight. Our job, asadults, is to retain the image of our children asthinkers, change-makers and entrepreneurs. Thediscouraging statistics on school performance arethe result of a failing system, not a failing child.Education leader Loris Malaguzzi tells us: “Thereare hundreds of different images of the child.Each one of you has inside yourself an image ofthe child that directs you as you begin to relateto a child. This theory within you pushes you tobehave in certain ways; it orients you as you talkto the child, listen to the child, observe the child.It is very difficult for you to act contrary to thisinternal image.”IT’S TIME TO EMBRACE A NEWIMAGE THAT INCLUDES:• Understanding that statistics don’t definethe child.• Recognizing the cultural richness thatchildren bring with them to school, seeingthat richness as an asset and reflecting thatrichness back to them in meaningful ways.• Seeing that we exist in a dominant narrativethat is not the only narrative possible.• Realizing that the constant referenceto Black children as “poor minorities” isdetrimental to the child’s image.• Changing language from children who are“at risk” to communities that are “at risk” oflosing their greatest hope for the future.Image change includes recognizing that theachievement gap is in fact a symptom ofstructural and systemic barriers that need tobe fixed, not children who need to be fixed.This can’t be done by maintaining the statusquo. It takes radical change in how schools andclassrooms are envisioned and organized.32