Along these same lines, we considered Toldson’s comments about ‘the exceptional child’ and wondered: Why are we so quick to take a deficit perspective? Why don’t we look to shine light on the students who are doing amazing and celebrate their stories? As critical social scientists, what can our role be in undoing some of this deficit perspective and building up a stronger foundation for a more celebratory insight? What would happen if we believed all children to be exceptional What would happen if we believed all educators are, too?

And finally, we reflected on the idea of influence Toldson introduced on page 176. We wondered about the tools and resources and self-confidence that educators might need in order to do this. So much of adult life seems to be threaded with confusion and self-doubt; are we projecting these feelings onto our students? What do we need in order to address these things within ourselves so that we can lift up our students? How can we begin to address these things within ourselves so we can do better by our students? 

Connecting to people, thinking critically, analyzing problems is what makes you a good researcher (Toldson, 2019).

“Great educators are not dependent on metrics that are designed for social control” (Toldson, p.174)

This picture is our culminating representation of our group learning. #QuantCrit
_{Picture from Pittsburgh Post Gazette, May 31, 2020 (MEME generated by our group)}