Meira Levenson knocks it out of the park

Please do yourself a favor and read Meira Levenson on the civic empowerment gap:

Unfortunately, many schools, especially those that serve predominantly low-income children of color, model civic disrespect and demand that their students practice submissive obedience rather than empowered engagement. They enact a continuous series of civic microaggressions against their students. These regular but unacknowledged mini-invalidations of children as civic persons worthy of respect are often barely noticeable to their victims—and usually totally invisible to their perpetrators.