If you are a teacher, do you ever wonder about life in other schools? Or when you were a student, did you ever have that feeling like some students had it better or worse than you did? These are the seeds of curiosity that too often get squashed in the daily grind of classes and responsibilities. 

But what if we allowed those seeds of curiosity to grow into action? What if we took the chance to see how other students and teachers live their lives? What could we learn?  In this episode, we catch up with a student who one day decided to act on his curiosity…

You are tuning into "Creating Space to Talk About Race," a special series where we hear from a racially diverse group of Oakland Technical High School students reflecting on their experiences in the Race, Policy, and Law academy known as RPL. In this episode, the students turn their attention to cross-racial solidarity and what it might take for us to get there. They speak candidly about the challenges and successes that they experienced in their classroom. You will hear from Samira, Nia, Audrey, Simona, Nyla, Imahni, Ceterra, Ruby, Summer, and their teacher, Heath. 

For over a year now, conservative politicians and pundits have weaponized "critical race theory" in attempts to turn out voters. Enraged parents have been protesting at school board meetings about what they fear is the indoctrination of their children.  Few, if any of them, have ever stepped into a classroom where students of different backgrounds are discussing race. What would the students themselves have to say about the impact of discussing race in the classroom? In this episode, guest host and producer Rose Khor shares the voices of a racially diverse group of students from Heath Madom's class at Oakland Tech. The students participated in racial affinity groups where they first divided into groups based on their racial identity to share their experiences and then, importantly, came back together as a whole group to listen to each of the groups offer their reflections. Tune in to what the students have to say about racial affinity groups.