This year's Curriculum Fair theme: DEFUND Police in Schools and Communities: FUND Community Schools and Communities will explore the connections between racial and economic justice, the links between racism and capitalism, and state sanctioned violence in communities and schools.

As educators, parents, and communities members, we know the troubling relationship Black and Brown families often have with police, yet police have become a common fixture in our schools and in our communities. We refuse to accept this as a norm. Our children deserve to be educated not policed.

At the same time we are truly witnessing the "history of the present moment" as groups of activists and organizers in Chicago and around the nation have been fighting back against economic and racial violence in unapologetic, creative, and effective ways. The critical analysis and rejection of the conditions which facilitate and reward over-policing and police brutality toward Black and Brown communities is stronger than any time since the modern civil rights movement began. Our goal is for the Curriculum Fair to build on this work and help educators bring this critical analysis into the curriculum and into the classrooms by discussing and planning workshops (among others) that explore:

    

  -What does it look like to strive to be an anti-racist teacher practitioner?

    

  -How do we understand the political economy of, and the connection between, chattel slavery, the prison industrial complex, and over-policing in Black and Brown communities?

      

 -What are the historic and contemporary issues that contribute to the explosion in incarceration and policing in Black and Brown communities?

    

  -What are the radical possibilities for truly restorative justice in our schools and in the communities in which they are situated?

Join us to discuss and plan the theme for the 2016 Teachers for Social Justice Curriculum Fair #TSJCF16, and begin to plan together to make this the most meaningful and action inspiring TSJ Curriculum Fair yet.