Somatic Abolitionism as Possibility for Rethinking Teachers’ Labor Activism

I come out of a writing binge Saturday night to news notifications on my phone that the United States has attacked Iran. Five months into taking office for his second term, Donald Trump has bombed three of the country’s nuclear facilities, pulling the United States deeper into the already-devastating conflict in the Middle East involving Palestine, Israel, and Yemen. Trump’s response to a reporter’s question on the White House lawn, “I may do it. I may not do it. I mean nobody knows what I’m going to do,” plays in my ears and alarm fleets through my body. I swipe and tap my way to Youtube, the algorithm already primed for my search, my feed already full of breaking news from various outlets. I wonder what are the facts of the matter? What is Iran’s response?

After watching a few videos, I see that I am caught up to speed; anything more would prolong the redundancy. I scan my body for biophysical responses. I soothe the areas the alarm passed through and acknowledge what I do and do not have control over in the world–very little and a whole lot, respectively. It’s past midnight when I turn to sleep, replacing Trump’s words with lyrics from a lullaby metabolized by my nervous system: “Collectivize your heart so that it breaks open and not apart. Let it hold all the pain of–and in–the world, without being numbed or overwhelmed” and “Condition your intellectual, political, and affective muscles for facing storms and running marathons in tortuous terrains.”1

New and veteran teachers alike can experience feeling overwhelmed by the uncertainty in the world and conclude that there’s no point in taking action, succumbing to apathy. I started identifying as an activist teacher nearly twenty years ago and I find myself to this day continually trying on ways of being in the world that embody wholeness and justice.2 I see my activism as the pursuit, as being in the inquiry.3 At times, it occurs to me that life would be easier if I were to give up activism because what difference am I actually making, so part of me can relate to the apathetic teacher. What I always return to, after critical contemplation, is a deep-seated belief that teachers want to know how they can be a contribution to the abolition of injustice and oppression in and beyond their schools. The missing ...