Dr. Dena Simmons, the founder of LiberatED, is a leading voice on teacher education. She has written and spoken across the country about social justice pedagogy, diversity and emotional intelligence. On July 9, in a featured session with AFT Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus at the AFT’s TEACH conference, she shared strategies to cope with isolation, uncertainty, burnout and the collective traumas of the pandemic and the country’s ongoing racial reckoning.
Simmons opened her discussion with a quote from Martin Luther, who said, “Even if I knew that tomorrow, the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.” Thinking about that quote in terms of her work with social justice, Simmons acknowledged that we might not see the fruits of our labor, but we do it anyway; we plant the tree.
