Whitney Redd

Thee Redd Method

A Note from the Author:

If you ask Dr. Asia or anyone who has been in conversation with me, please understand that I like to paint a picture when explaining why I created Thee Redd Method. My story is a bit long, and might have some tangential runs, but I promise I always tie it back together. I’m passionate about my work in empowering educators for the wellness of the entire community they are in service to. So come take this journey through my lens...

When I was in elementary school, I attended school in Riverdale, Georgia. While I was born in the Bay Area of California, I always say that my time at W.A. Fountain Elementary School inspired my motivation to be an educator in primary schools. I remember every teacher I had there from 2nd to 5th grade. In second grade I had Mrs. Dykes. She was strict but truly made sure that we were academically focused; she played little to no games around math or reading. In 3rd grade, my teacher was named Ms. Gray. She was sweet and soft-spoken but she cultivated a love for social students and history in me as well as the fun of learning cursive. In 4th and 5th grade, I had a mix of both teachers in Mrs. Brandi Lampl. She was phenomenal and she cared about me not only academically but as a complete person. She made sure my math facts were solid so that I could participate in statewide math competitions, she challenged me to critically think about historical figures we were exposed to in the curriculum. She cared about my love of sports and cheered for me on field days. She invested in my wellbeing outside of the classroom and took me to cool events with other students and educators, where they served good spaghetti. Through her motivation as well as my mom’s, I stayed an honor roll student and won a $50 cash prize for reading the most books in the entire school. I was smart, engaged and successful.

When I returned to California with my mother in my 6th grade year, I had a very hard time adjusting. I didn’t understand the norms any more, the culture and the lack of effort on behalf of my new educators. I had never met teachers who were disengaged and burnt out; this was completely new to me. Recognizing their lack of care for me I began to cut school, hangout with the girls and boys who did not care about academics and I was no longer interested in sports or extra-curriculars. I also kept getting into physical fights because I ain’t no punk. Mind you, I never fought a day in my life while in Riverdale. My mom was stunned and immediately moved me to a private school for girls where I was the only Black girl in the 8th grade. I lost the people around me who looked like me and spoke like me, because my mom knew my academic potential and refused to let me fail. I was emotionally devastated, but academically liberated. I learned Spanish, soccer, science and social studies from some brilliant educators, while at the same time feeling loneliness, despair and isolation for most of the year. I eventually began to make friends and show my true character again. We traveled to Mexico, we built cool projects in woodshop and I still remained friends with the librarian because reading was still my favorite leisure time activity.

I attended 3 different middle schools, and felt like a Black Goldilocks, trying to find the right fit for me. My mom and I took the high school shadowing process very seriously, because I needed some stability, high academic rigor and it was fundamental that I find a space where I could see people who looked like me in class as well. I eventually found a beautiful liberal arts school in San Francisco, while a PWI still had a lot of diversity. Some of the most impactful lessons that I have held onto come from this 250 person school located in the Haight Ashbury. We heard from Ruby Bridges, Michael Franti, Robin Williams and interviewed Holocaust Survivors. We read “One Hundred Years of Solitude” in its original Spanish writing. I played tennis and was co-captain of the softball team. We went skiing, hiking, gardening and learned how to become one with nature. I learned that I had a talent for deciphering Shakepeare because it sounded like rap lyricism to me and I understood the code. My favorite people in the world are of varying ethnicities and we all learned how to be good humans, to scrutinize systems, to not be bystanders while growing and learning together in that space. We became historians and evidenced based researchers, writers and orators. High school healed a version of my broken soul and exposed me to every facet of what it means to have access to socio-economic privilege and excel when resources are not scarce.

Sooooo… ask me as a public school educator, why am I so passionate about helping the students in Title I schools. Ask me why I am compelled to expose and give them access to everything that I did. I did not have full access to quality educational resources at the public schools but I was emotionally unsafe at the private schools. How do you mend that? My answer: provide the highest quality educators for students who are under-served and in resource deprived systems, without removing them from their communities. I told y’all I’d eventually get to the point.

My mission as the creator of Thee Redd Method is to work together with other educators and provide them with the tools to keep students in their communities while creating systems of academic rigor, high expectations and success while still inside of those communities. My mission is to bring private school academic rigor to the hood. To expose every single student I encounter to the broader world, while understanding and respecting their histories, without letting those be obstacles towards their success.

My heart called to me. It was not only the students who needed the support, but the educators needed empowering as well. The families and support staff all needed to be in on the heist. The heist of life is built on the backs of educators. Educators are tired. I see so much reactionary responses from administrators and districts, when there are in fact procedures and tools for teaching, that are preventative and mental health saving. When the educator is well, the students are well, the families are well, the community is well.

I created these techniques over the course of almost 2 decades as an after-school staff, director, mental health counselor, community organizer, political activist, school support staff and finally a full-time classroom educator. I have been through it ALL. My experience in every facet of the field has allowed me to learn, tailor, apply and now teach these skills. My greatest hope is that educators can use this guide, to create a pursuit of educating which sustains them and their students. Where we not only survive, we thrive.

With many opportunities for joy to be had and in community with one another,
Whitney Redd, EDUCATOR