Black students, white teacher…
September 17, 2007 by alicemercer
Part of why I wanted to start this blog is that even though I am a white female from a middle-class background, I have always had a large number of minority students, many of whom are black. I think this has made me more sensitive to issues around the education gap for black students. This article, Education - Forum tackles crisis in black education - sacbee.com follows a local forum on black education that tries to address the achievement gap between blacks and whites. A recent analysis of state test scores showed that even controlling for income levels, there is still a gap between races. The best part as at the end which starts off with a quote from Lauren Hammond (local city council member).
“We’re all doing a lot of talking,” said Sacramento City Councilwoman Lauren Hammond. “That’s what we’re best at.”
She called for people to come up with constructive ideas.
And many did come forward with at least partial solutions.
Reach out to parents who want the best for their children but may have had bad experiences in schools in the past, suggested Bertha Udell, a first-grade teacher at Parkway Elementary School.
I hear that teacher in Parkway (which Larry will tell you has a very poor and extremely distressed student population). I always try to keep in mind that parents may have a reason for the chip on their shoulder so I try to give them a fair hearing, and reassure them. Sometimes, this is for naught, but it works out often enough to be worthwhile.
Wherever they came down on the origin of the crisis, almost all of those in attendance shared the same underlying concern: We know the problem is there, now how do we fix it?
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You’re bringing me back to the collegial book study in which I participated with the staff at my previous school (in Kansas)- we read “Teaching Reading to Black Adolescent Males” by Alfred Tatum. It was interesting because while we had an African American minority presence at the school, it wasn’t as strongly represented at our school as it was at others in the district. We also had no African American teachers though there were two or three terrific ladies who worked as paras/aides. The book was chosen because we were teaching in a district that was dealing with the “culture of poverty,” and African Americans made up the largest poor group in our town. Our superintendent and assistant super were both African American males.
Discussing the chapters became very interesting and awkward when the opinions of teachers who were lifelong Kansans didn’t quite mesh with those of us who had been brought up elsewhere and/or traveled extensively. There were also definite judgement calls made by teachers concerning the tendency of those families living in the poorer parts of town taking more of an interest in “showing the bling” as a social investment rather than spending time inside the home helping their children with homework. Hubcaps and stereos were bought before books and computers, and it was something we as teachers had to accept and work with.
One of the teachers was married to a man who was raised in a ghetto neighborhood, and considered our small town in Kansas not NEARLY as “poor” as the one she visited when spending time with in-laws (and she was right). I brought my experiences not only as a teacher from Alaska and New Mexico to the mix, but as a 1/2 Caucasian, 1/2 Inupiaq woman who had attended schools in poorer Hispanic parts of El Paso, Eskimo villages in Alaska, and small farming communities near military posts. Two other teachers rounded out our staff with Japanese and Filipino “blood” but lived what might be called “stereotypically white” lives. It didn’t take too long to realize that there was no way that many teachers in Kansas were going to be equipped, much less familiar with the personalities and cultural values of people of different ethnic backgrounds, despite having American Indian/Native heritages represented statewide. And if the teachers were born, raised, educated, and employed in Kansas, never to travel or study elsewhere, their scope was only “stretched” when Uncle Sam rotated soldiers and their families through the nearby military post. Add to the mix the uneasy thread of political-correctness of it all… I’m not sure we ever came to some conclusion or made a plan as to how to address the experiential, cultural, or social gaps that were apparent between African American students and their Caucasian counterparts because we were so struck with the diversity of not only our students, but ourselves, our communities, our upbringings, our values, our goals for the year and our hopes.
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Yeah. I think more than where you’re from, or who you are teaching, it’s what you hear, and do you listen. I’m hard-headed, and believe me, I moan as much as the next teacher in my school about ghetto things the parents do, but at the end of the day there are a few things I have to acknowledge:
Many do want the best for their kids; they may not know what that entails, it’s part of my job to teach them;
Many are trying their best and have a lot to deal with; I have to acknowledge that;
Even with those that aren’t trying their best, and should know better, so what? I still have to teach their kid. Bitchin’ n’ moaning will not get that done.
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I agree … and since what we have been doing (we meaning a generalized reference to education in general) hasn’t been working … isn’t that reason to try new things beyond just doing the same things in a different way?
Brian
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Okay, does the wretchedness of this story need any elaboration? This happened at the barbershop across the street from my school. Many of the folks who work there volunteer in the school to help our kids.
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