Reflecting on the LES Center’s Professional Development Program

This past week, the Lillian E. Smith (LES) Center hosted “The Civil Rights Movement in Northeast Georgia,” an inaugural professional development opportunity for P-12 educators throughout Georgia and the surrounding states. I’ve had a couple of days to reflect on the program, and today I want to share some of my thoughts. This will not be a detailed discussion of what the participants did; rather, it will be a sort of self reflection on why programs such as this are important, especially during this moment.

When I worked at the Ernest Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, I did similar programs. I did two week-long P-12 programs where participants read and discussed Gaines’ work. These events went alright, but they did not, at least to me, spark the engagement that occurred this past week. Along with those events, I did a four-week NEH Summer Institute for university educators which focused on Gaines’ work and connections to others writers and South Louisiana. That event sparked engaging conversations and connections that have lasted for years.

I mention those programs at the Gaines Center because each was different. The first P-12 program was similar to “The Civil Rights Movement in Northeast Georgia,” internally funded and constructed. However, it was really a spur of the moment program…