“Y’all! Let’s start a critical companionship!” Mialee says with a broad smile on her face. 

Scottie stops mid-text. “What’s a critical companionship?”

“I’m glad you asked!” Mialee says. “It’s when a group of people commit to learn as much as they can about something so they can transform it. For us, it would be education.” 

“Me? Transform the system of education? Have you been in my classroom?” Scottie asks. “Besides, I only have one month of real experience.”

Malik’s eyes widen. “You don’t count your residency year? I count mine!” 

“Why would I do that? I wasn’t the teacher of record, and neither were you.” Scottie continues texting. 

“I did ‘teacher of record’ work.” At the beginning of Malik’s residency year, his mentor teacher went on maternity leave. Instead of hiring a substitute, the school leadership team assigned him the lead teacher role. This lasted until after Christmas.

“Scottie, I’ve seen what you are working with. You have what it takes.” Mialee hands Scottie and Jamerson two sheets of paper held together by a loose staple. “This article explains the concept. I sent it via email, too.” 

Scottie opens her computer. “And that’s all you should have done, sis! Y’all got it like that at your school?” 

“No, but when the secretary loves you, you can make all the copies you want.” Mialee boasts. “I don’t take advantage, though. A couple of extra copies here and there.”

Malik skims the document. “Yo, this looks legit. I’m down!”

“Is this like an emotional support group? Because that’s what I need at this point.” Scottie can’t move past her own problems.

“Well, yes. That’s part of it. We’ll reflect together and encourage each other to focus on positive feelings and deal with negative ones.” Mialee emphasizes as she references the paper in her hand. “We’ll share stories and help each other see things from different perspectives.”

“We already do that, though,” Malik adds. 

“Right! Because when you drop Scottie off, you never leave right away.” Mialee raises both hands. “Which is fine! Having you here is cool. But more importantly, your hanging around has allowed us to become each other’s anchor. We sit around this table, eat, plan lessons, and talk about the good, the great, the bad, and the ugly. I mean, we’re basically already critical companions! Declaring it just makes it official.”  

“I’m in, but who knows how long I’ll teach. It’s not looking too good for me.” Scottie shrugs her shoulders. 

Mialee take a long, deep breath. “You say that every day and ain’t went nowhere!”

Scottie sinks into her chair. Her lower lip protrudes. “I know! Y’all know I love my kids. I love this work, but it’s so hard. I lost control today. Again!” The day was rough for Scottie. It started with a cockroach crawling on the floor while students completed their ‘do now.’ As soon as she noticed it, Scottie hopped on her desk. The kids went wild. They were running around the room and screaming. Some of them jumped on their desks, too. They became so obstreperous that the teacher next door left her students alone to ensure everything was okay. One kid yelled that the roach came from another kid’s backpack. Scottie could not confirm or deny the accusation.

“Give yourself some grace, sis! “Mialee shows compassion even though she’s had enough of Scottie’s ‘woah is me’ attitude for the evening. “You’re a new teacher, and it’s not like your teacher education program fully prepared you.” 

“Yeah, Pippen. Ease up. The season just started!” Teaching is hard for Malik, too, but he approaches it like a supreme athlete. He has the Mamba mentality and is committed to becoming a better teacher daily. This is important to him because black men only comprised two percent of U.S. teachers.  

“And why did a student ask me today if my daddy’s name was Scott,” says Scottie. 

“Mmmm. I wonder if it’s because your name is Scottie.” Malik chuckles.

Scottie rolls her eyes and raises a middle finger at Malik. “Anyway! Sis, I think this is a great idea. I may complain a lot, but I’m down for the cause. Especially when you’re leading us!”

“Yay! We can be like the Power Rangers for education transformation!” Mialee exclaims. 

“The Power Rangers?” Malik shakes his head. “How old are you, again?”