First, full disclosure: Alicia López, ELL teacher and co-assistant principal at Amherst Regional Middle School, is my daughter. She’s been a teacher for 23 years, 13 of them at ARMS, where she is the only multilingual/bicultural administrator at the school.
Dave Ranen, a beloved music teacher for nearly 40 years at the school, taught my other daughter 30 years ago and, more recently, taught three of my grandchildren. And Patty Bode, principal at ARMS, is a good friend, former doctoral student and co-author.
A number of my grandchildren have attended the Amherst public schools, including a granddaughter who is currently at ARMS.
I write to express my dismay that this exceptional team of educators — Dr. Bode, Ms. López and Mr. Ranen — will be disbanded because they have not completed their licensure, which they are on track to complete in June or July. Given the state’s requirements, I understand that this situation may not be able to be reversed.
Nevertheless, I believe it’s important to underline some of the accomplishments that Dr. Bode and her team have made possible at the school in light of negative or incorrect comments made about their qualifications.
I have known Dr. Bode for over 25 years I believe she is among the most dedicated, knowledgeable, and talented multicultural teachers I’ve had the honor to work with in my long career. She has been a teacher for the Amherst public schools for a total of 16 years, having brought her unique talents to the town’s schools, first as a teacher at Wildwood and then at ARMS, and in the past two years, as the best principal ARMS has had in many years.
The comment at a recent School Committee meeting about Dr. Bode’s qualifications — “as if words like multicultural education can be used for a Caucasian person’s resume” — seem to imply that multicultural education is the exclusive domain of people of color. God help us if that is where we are in our town.
For Dr. Bode, multicultural education is not just a line on her resume. It is, instead, a lifelong commitment. Among many awards for her dedication to diversity and social justice, she has won numerous accolades including, most recently an award from the National Association of Art Education. In 2005, she became the very first classroom teacher in the nation to be named the Multicultural Educator of the Year by the National Association for Multicultural Education based on her work in the Amherst schools (all previous winners were professors).
Anybody who has walked into ARMS recently has to be well aware of the remarkable job that Dr. Bode, Ms. López and Mr. Ranen have done since they took over the leadership of the school two years ago. I can’t begin to count the times that people — teachers, friends, neighbors, even strangers — have stopped me on the street to praise the positive and welcome changes Dr. Bode and her team have brought to the school, turning it into a place of nurturing, high expectations for all students, innovative curriculum and respectful relationships with families. In sum, Dr. Bode’s leadership has brought the school the kind of stability that families and residents have for years yearned for.
I understand the need for certification. Having been a teacher educator for 25 years at the University of Massachusetts, and before that for three years at Brooklyn College, I’ve taught thousands of prospective and practice teachers and administrators and I have guided them through the certification process. However, I know firsthand that state certification alone does not guarantee that one will be a knowledgeable, caring, and committed teacher or administrator.
When certification becomes little more than jumping through hoops rather than a serious examination of candidates’ dedication to academic rigor, equity and social justice, I believe there must be other ways of ascertaining educators’ qualifications.
I believe wholeheartedly that the number of people of color in educational leadership positions needs to increase. Anybody familiar with my work knows that I’ve devoted my professional life to equity, justice and diversity in education, including working for the recruitment and retention of a diverse pool of educators in our schools.
At the same time, I know that other qualities besides cultural and racial identity need to be considered if we are to create equitable schools and root out racism from our schools and universities. We also need to consider a proven record of commitment and experience in diversity and equity, something that Dr. Bode has demonstrated time and time again in her many years as an educator. She is the quintessential white anti-racist educator, a model for others to emulate.
Amherst will be hard pressed to find a principal with the quality and dedication to equity and multiculturalism that Dr. Bode has brought to the school.
Sonia Nieto, of Amherst, is a professor emerita of language, literacy and culture in the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
