First Person is where Chalkbeat features personal essays by educators, students, parents, and others thinking and writing about public education.

I have no formal training, but I’m an expert in my child.
An English teacher and a school librarian in NYC launched an effort that is helping teens increase their reading stamina.
My experiences led me to fight for change for Tennessee teachers.
Miss Anne Marie, a teacher with NYC’s Hospital Schools, taught elementary school from the pediatric cancer ward.
Many lessons focus on what unfolded on that terrible Tuesday without examining the devastation that followed.
The question for all but the strongest, most charismatic teaching personalities: How do you want to come across to your new students?
We are lucky to work in an environment where there is such a clear beginning, middle, and end of every year of work.
We’ve failed to show many educators of color that teaching and education leadership are viable career paths.
I wasn’t prepared for the anti-Asian racism I experienced this summer.
It took a few days, but the girls who are staying at a local police station with their families are now officially enrolled in Chicago Public Schools.
A new study lays bare the realities of gun violence in Chicago.
Chalkbeat’s 2023-24 paid essay writing program is open to high school juniors and seniors in NYC and Newark.
Growing up, masculinity meant denying vulnerability. There’s a better way.
If we continue to treat the use of AI as plagiarism, we’re all doomed to fail. Here’s what we should be doing instead.
I’m a preK teacher. Here’s why I think the move to a private equity-owned curriculum is a problem.
Esta decisión reciente alienta a los estudiantes a no incluir partes esenciales de quienes son.
Me alegra que los agentes de seguridad armados regresen a la escuela, Andy Bucher escribe.
I worried that I was failing my students. Their words showed me otherwise.
It was a painful semester at Denver’s East High School. I’m glad SROs are back on campus.
Colleges insist that the application is a space for them to get to know a student. But this ruling encourages students to leave out core parts of who they are.
These institutions have helped reinforce racial and economic inequality. It’s time for them to expand their seats and open satellite campuses in under-invested areas.
This year’s graduating seniors were freshmen when COVID first closed schools.
I love reflecting with teachers, but I hate the evaluation process.
The women in my family haven’t had the opportunities now before me, but their stories made mine possible.
Las mujeres de mi familia no han tenido las oportunidades que yo, pero sus historias hicieron posible la mía.
Demand far exceeded spots in the city’s free summer program, leaving families scrambling.
It’s heartbreaking to realize that I never taught many of my former students to read.
I was told that topics such as white supremacy and intersectionality would make it difficult to sell the curriculum.
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