THE POWER OF
BY CHAD MILLS
n Saturday October 1, 2022, ETFO hosted an his- toric event, a public sym- posium called Generation Black: You’re Next. It was an event I hoped would
happen when I was at the beginning of my teaching career but also one that I thought would be increasingly unnecessary. Genera- tion Black was the culmination of decades of outcry from students, parents, commu- nities, scholars and educators. Its main goal was to “address the urgency for recruiting Black teachers and the necessity of retaining Black educators to improve representation of Black people in education.” Held in Toron- to, the day included panel discussions with education stakeholders and scholars such as Dr. Carl James (author of the Towards Race Equity in Education Report), Vice-Principal Pierrette Walker-Eniss, Dr. Andrew Campbell (AKA Dr. ABC) and Jhonel Morvan (Nouve- lon French Catholic Board Superintendent of
18 ETFO VOICE | WINTER 2022
Education). The event also enlisted thought- provoking and engaging moderators from the education community including War- ren Salmon (ONABSE president) and social justice advocate Nastassia Subban. Adding to the list of esteemed speakers was keynote Wes “Maestro” Williams, Canadian rapper, actor, author and motivational speaker. In my first year of teaching, I was asked
by a Black male elementary school student, “Mr. Mills, what made you want to become a teacher?” My immediate response was, “Well, I just always wanted to be one, and my pater- nal grandmother ‘back home’ (rural Jamaica) built and worked in a school in her commu- nity. So I guess it’s in my blood.” Later that evening, however, his inquiry resurfaced and made me reflect on what may have lay deeper in my pursuit of education as a career path. After much thought, it hit me. Throughout my years of schooling – from elementary to secondary school – I had what would be considered a lot of Black teachers. Four. Two
REPRESENTATION O
in elementary and two in secondary. I had Mrs. Fraser in Grade 2 and Mr. Cummings in Grade 8. Most significantly I remember how they made me feel and how their mere pres- ence made me want to do my best. Just the fact that they were Black made me feel more present and connected. That kind of famil- iarity, that visibility and feeling of belonging, cannot be underestimated or quantified. One memory I have in particular was
when I started at my new middle school as a Grade 6 student and saw Mr. Cummings. Seeing this Black man, who always seemed calm and confident with the hint of a Jamai- can accent, made me and many other Black boys in our school look at him with rever- ence! Although he was not actually very tall, he felt like a giant to us. Mr. Cummings taught Grade 8 and coached the senior boys’ basketball team. Before he ever spoke to me, I walked up to him and said, “I have to be in your class when I get to Grade 8. Put me in your class.” He laughed and said, “We’ll
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