Teacher in Minneapolis pushes “freedom dreaming” amid crisis

freedom dreaming – A Spanish and world history teacher in Minneapolis describes an unusually painful 2025–26 school year shaped by violence and family losses in her community—while insisting that her classroom still centers joy, equity, and students’ humanity through “freedom dr

On the morning the school year began, the news arrived with a kind of shock that didn’t stay outside the classroom. In Minneapolis, the 2025–26 school year opened with a mass shooting at Annunciation School, a community with close ties to the teacher’s own school.

Then December brought another wave—“the havoc of ICE removing neighbors and family members from our communities”—and the fear that followed culminated in the murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. On the hardest days, she said she held back tears while trying to instruct her classes. Her students and she were scared; their mental health was tested; and they were often distracted by what was happening beyond the school walls.

For the educator, the emotional weight of those events isn’t separate from the way schools talk about curriculum. She said she can’t help but feel that one of the first steps to legitimizing “brutal and dehumanizing treatment” of Brown and Black people—and those protesting against ICE—has been creating a narrative that DEI is antithetical to academic learning.

She pushes back against that argument from inside her lesson plans. As a Spanish and history teacher, she believes DEI “pumps life” into what she teaches. Her classroom north stars are embedding joy and equity into the curriculum and building authentic relationships with students. She calls her students “family. ” and she has a banner with a quote by Gwendolyn Brooks on her door: “We are each other’s magnitude and bond.” Photos of the students are placed around the banner.

This year. she also began teaching world history. saying the class energizes her and makes her want to “revolutionize” and freedom-dream the way history is taught—exploring people and stories that matter. The work that shaped her approach includes “Facing History and Ourselves” and the “Remedial Herstory Project.”.

The lessons she described are designed to keep that belief visible even when the world outside feels unsteady. In Spanish. she built a unit titled “In Times of Crisis. Humanitarian Help.” Students learned about the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa in many Caribbean countries. but her focus remained on World Central Kitchen and humanitarian José Andrés’s work to restore people’s dignity and ability to live after natural disasters by preparing meals for them.

In world history, she said she spent longer than necessary on the Mauryan Empire and Ashoka’s legacy in Buddhism, emphasizing principles of peace, nonviolence, and respect for all creation. One student told her the lesson made her strongly consider converting to Buddhism.

For her, these classroom moments carry a promise that goes beyond content. Even as politics and society seem “rife with conflict. ” she believes students can learn ways to lead with peace. love. and “fierce empathy.” Watching neighbors and friends rise up to protect the safety. integrity. and “heartbeat” of her city—amid the violence and injustice of ICE—has also reinforced that point for her. and she said it motivates her to eliminate the idea that hope is lost.

Freedom dreaming, she said, has become a way to channel the world she wants to live in directly into the curriculum. In the classroom, she and her students work to banish hate and inequity infiltrating their lives.

Her professional path has kept moving, too. During the Voices of Change fellowship. she said she grew as a writer and was inspired by educators who gave her the gift of “freedom dreaming.” After that fellowship. she earned a Pushcart Prize nomination for poetry in 2024. She then received the Voices of Change fellowship and the poetry honor. and used that momentum to apply for and receive a summer writers’ residency this year.

Even with more recognition—and a new subject that gives her joy—she described this year as one of the most emotionally exhausting and difficult after more than 20 years of teaching. What has remained constant. she said. is creating moments of joy. humor. and connection in the classroom. while still building competencies “not just for school. but for life.”.

Her goal is that each school day is permeated by the unwritten hope of freedom dreaming, so that her students and she—and, through them, the wider community—believe in what she calls the barrier-breaking power of unity and a world thriving on dignity and respect for all.

education Minneapolis schools ICE Annunciation School Renée Good Alex Pretti DEI world history Spanish class freedom dreaming Voices of Change fellowship Pushcart Prize nomination summer writers' residency Mauryan Empire Ashoka Buddhism José Andrés World Central Kitchen Hurricane Melissa Facing History and Ourselves Remedial Herstory Project