Jay Wamsted

Jay Wamsted has taught math at Benjamin E. Mays High School in southwest Atlanta for fourteen years. His writing has been featured in various journals and magazines, including "Harvard Educational Review," "Mathematics Teacher" and "Sojourners." He can be found online at "The Southeast Review," "Under the Sun" and the "TEDx" YouTube channel, where you can watch his 2017 talk “Eating the Elephant: Ending Racism & the Magic of Trust.” He and his wife have four young children, and he rides his bicycle to and from work just about every day. You can contact him on Twitter @JayWamsted or by email, wamsted@gmail.com.

Posts By Jay Wamsted

opportunity gap

ZIP Code May Not Be Destiny, But It's as Hard to Fight as Gravity

One Saturday I was picking my daughter up from a birthday party at one of those modern-day upscale arcades, and I was surprised to run into one of my students. I was so pleased to see him on a random...

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equity

We Can't Return to Status Quo When This Pandemic Is Over

Just by way of introduction, let me begin this post the way I have begun most conversations in the past month: I am both exhausted and privileged to be so. Privileged because I have a job that, so...

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equity

Now Is the Perfect Time for White Teachers to Do 'The Work' of Anti-Racism

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted, well, everything, but at times I find that I have more time to communicate, virtually if necessary, with family and friends, even over fraught topics. Example:...

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equity

The Inequity Between Students Isn’t New, COVID-19 Is Just Bringing It to Light

During World War II, riding out the Blitz in his native London, theologian and fantasy author C. S. Lewis wrote, “The war creates no absolutely new situation; it simply aggravates the permanent human...

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bias

27 Mistakes White Teachers of Black Students Make and How to Fix Them

Editor's note: This article was updated on July 24, 2024. A few years back, I was in my room meeting parents during an open house days before the school year started. A woman walked in, looked up...

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equity

My Black Students Have Learned to Be Wary of People Who Look Like Me, And That's Not Racist

Recently in class, my students and I were listening to Lil Nas X sing “Old Town Road,” for what felt like the 100th time. Unintentionally I began to sing along, weaving through desks and timing my...

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