Educational institutions are incredibly attached to the power they hold over students. Sadly, some teachers are also incredibly attached to that power. So much of the student experience of education crashes upon the rocks of their own systemic disempowerment.

In response to my student advocacy, I’ve been told I’m “pandering,” “naive,” “teacher-shaming,” that faculty development should be “ideologically neutral.” I’ve been called a “gumdrop unicorn” and worse. Because of my calls for compassionate pedagogies, I’ve been bullied myself.

In the last year, I’ve watched educational institutions make decisions that leave students flailing, all without adequately consulting those students about what they need to be successful — what they need to be safe.

I’ve seen many teachers working incredibly hard to listen for student voices, finding ways to help students in need, adapting their pedagogies on the fly to create points of entry for struggling students. I’ve seen many of these teachers swimming against the tide of institutions.

But I’ve also seen teachers scoffing at the idea of compassionate grading policies. I’ve seen teachers patronizing to students about how they should behave on video. And I’ve seen so many teachers and institutions adopting insidious approaches like remote proctoring software.

My Twitter profile calls me “irascibly optimistic,” a moniker given to me by @slamteacher. I will be honest that I’ve struggled to maintain that optimism over the last year, partly because of COVID but even more because of how I’ve seen so many educational institutions respond.