Ayo Magwood
Upper School teacher, Maret School
Upper School teacher, Maret School
Ayo Magwood is an Upper School teacher at Maret School, an independent school in Washington DC. She currently teaches U.S. History and an elective entitled “Mapping Inequity in DC”.
She teaches US History with a mind to preparing future citizens to be able to engage in respectful and informed dialogue on current issues. She consistently shows students how the same ideological value tensions that lie under historical debates and developments, also underlie current and future issues. She strives to show them how to understand and respect opposing viewpoints and to counter them with informed evidence, rather than with partisan sound bites.
She also teaches history through a strong social justice lens. For example, this year she is upending the usual US History chronology and starting the year with a 4-week “1960s-present” unit entitled “Understanding the Rise of Trumpism and Black Lives Matter.” The underlying objective is to help the students come to an understanding about the rise of income and racial inequality.
