RE_5539

Heather,
Yours is a complex and thorough interaction with these last chapters. Your story of moving into a new culture and the difficulties you experienced are revealing of the issues in these last chapters. Thank you for sharing that story.
One other thing I do want to mention is that seeing color does not mean that one is racist. In fact, I have read in some places that claiming to be "color blind" is a dangerous idea. Of course, I believe that people who say they are "color blind" have the best intentions in the way that you describe. However, to be color blind runs the risk of ignoring race altogether, and race is an important context within which to understand identity. THe goal is to see race without being stereotypical or discriminatory, wouldn't you think?
Alecia Jackson

Your post brought so many thoughts into my mind. I feel the same frustration you feel in the classroom. I, too, am white. This is my fifth year teaching first grade in my school. (This is long enough, I thought, to develop a reputation that is accurate and indicative of the kind of person and teacher that I am.) I spoke with a parent of one of my African-American students last year who was struggling terribly in reading and writing. I suspected a learning disability and wanted to send him through the testing process at our school to see if there was a problem. His mother became very angry with me. (I was shocked because I worked from the first meeting prior to the school year beginning to develop a good relationship.) She told another member of our faculty (who is African-American) that her son's "white teacher" didn't know what she was talking about. (!) I totally related when you said "Because I am white, I do not automatically feel or think a certain way. That is simply not true. As a teacher, I value all of my students for the individuals that they are. I want them to see past color lines and cultural barriers so that they may learn from one another... I do not want parents of my African American students to automatically think that because I am white, I have some prejudicial ideas about their race or culture." I am NOT a racist. I don't make judgements on my students based upon their race or culture. My judgement on this child, who I happened to love dearly, was based solely on his classroom performance and experience in working with young readers. To say that I was offended doesn't even touch my feelings at the time. In the days that followed I realized that I was looking at the situation from MY perspective and experience. I don't know the discrimination she (or her parents and grandparents) felt in a classroom or with a "white teacher." Our experiences dictate our feelings and viewpoints.

heather,

like you i also have many many questions that i have no answers for. i have never ever ever heard a teacher at our school make a racist comment about a child nor have i seen a teacher make a negative comment about any child based on their race or language dialect. i love my children and i see that same passion written over and over again in all these blogs.

at times while reading these chapters ive felt that i am being put on the defensive based on my race. some comments i felt were too harsh and tended to put down other races. i dont feel that it is good practice to put others down while making important and valid statements about children and education and the different dialects children speak.

it is imperative that teachers respect all children and teach those children to the best of their ability. each teacher taking this class is bettering herself and continuing to learn in order to serve all children. how great is that!
donna byrd-wyatt

Heather,
I too have faced misunderstandings due to my accent and/or my orientation. I relocated to the Rocky Mountain region just out of college (I had grown up in the South);later, I moved to upstate New York from the midwest. The straight forward qualities of those New Englanders appealed to me but they certainly didn't quite know what to do with me at first! This year I moved to a predominately black school where I once again was an enigma to many of my students as well as some of my co-workers. Quite frankly, I was more surprised by the adjustment this year than by any adjustments I've made in my teaching career. I experienced first hand the feeling of being "judged" by my skin color rather than by my actions. I realized that I had to work to be accepted as a valid member of the shool community (which took time and patience)! Building trust does indeed take time and energy, as I'm sure you'd agree. And that is a political reality as well as an educational one, which is where the two worlds interface. I would love to think that we educators could work outside of politics but my experiences lead me to realize that dream may be unrealistic.
Betsy Baldwin

Heather,

Thank you for being open and honest with your post. I too felt some of the same things while reading. I often feel judged because I am white as well. I have often had the open conversation with my peers and administrators about race at our school. I myself am extremely accepting of all of my students and would do about anytthing for them. I wonder where their own beliefs and first impressions of me being white come from. Do their beliefs come from home? Do they come from negative past experiences with another white teacher? I absolutely hate that race is still such an issue in schools. With everything and all relationships trust takes time to build.

Heather,

I have worked in similar situations you are discussing now. It’s unfortunate that we encounter these behaviors because of the color of our skin but we do. One in particular I would like to share with you. I have worked at a school in a rural area and I was the only African American Certified Teacher. There were African American Assistants but not teachers. The heartbreaking part of this story, during Open House, a parent openly stated to the principal, in my presence, “I do not want that nigger teaching my child and I want him out of this class now”. I must commend the principal for saying, “I am not taking your child out of the class and if you do not want your child in that class, I advise you to take him out of this school”. There were other parents who felt that way; however, they did not verbalized it. Now, you must believe I worked hard to earn respect and acceptance from my parents and my colleagues, inspite of the painful remarks and actions, I stayed because of the principal. At the end of my first year at that school, the attitude and behavior changed amongst my parents and my colleagues. Those same parents went to the principal and requested that I should be moved to first grade the following year and THEY wanted their child to be placed in my room. The principal asked them to put it writing and he would see what he could do. Those letters were shared with me. He thanked me for and these are his words, “hanging in there”. I think the reason the parent’s attitude changed probably had something to do with the children. Towards the end of the year, their attitude changed. You know how, we as teachers must stand at the door first thing in the morning to greet the children. Well, it was during the spring of that year. This one student with red hair and freckles on his face would bring me a flower from his mom’s garden every morning. It was the sweetest and kindest thing anyone could do and it was everyday this student did this until the end of the school year.

Being accepted and respected will not happen overnight, however, with perseverance, it will happen. There is more to this story. This is just enough to let you know you’ll do just fine and it may turn out to be positive. It would be nice to work in a school and you are accepted regardless of the color of your skin and the tone you speak.

Heather,

I agree that it is unfair to label all whites, or as Kohl suggested on page 156, "all non-African Americans as racist in some way". Racism is defined as racial prejudice and descrimination. I think the idea that all non-African Americans are racist is racist thinking in itself. Every race has its share of people who prejudge or discriminate based on superficial criteria such as race, class, or language, including African Americans. On the other hand, there are also people from many races, cultures, and backgrounds who are genuinely friendly and caring people who want to see beyond superficial differences such as color, and who try to see people for who they really are.

It sounds like you had an experience like many of our students. You came into a situation in which you were the outsider. You didn't know their lingo and you were probably chastised b/c of it. You thought you were trying, yet they didn't see it that way. I often wonder, after looking back on situations where i thought a kid was "trying to be bad", if in reality, he was trying to do the opposite (or say the opposite). Language and tone are so powerful, that with one single word or sentence, we can totally change how people view us. That's why it's important to topsy-turvy, to try to hear ourselves and how we sound, before we speak. It's so important as teachers to make sure our students know that we care about them and respect them. We need to learn to show it a bit better by accepting their dialects, and working with them.

In reaction to your last comments, i sometimes feel the same way. Do African-American parents feel that i treat their children the same. I definitely do!!! but, i also get the feeling sometime that they don't feel that way, just by simple comments they make (and their child says they make). What can we do to get the point across? I guess my only suggestion is to let the parents know that we treat everyone the same and respect everyone. We can do this by the lessons that we teach their children. I know that next year i plan on doing a language/dialect study (learned from a previous chapter). Of course this will not be the only thing, but hopefully all my children and their parents will realize that i respect and want their kids to respect all cultures and dialects.