After reading “Understand?” by Will Okun (an English teacher in a Chicago school with many students from low-income and minority homes), I began to think about my own experience as a student and how race has played a part in learning in my life. After years of encountering many different teachers with diverse backgrounds, I can speak from my own experience when I say that when it comes to learning, the race of a teacher neither qualifies nor disqualifies them from teaching effectively. In other words, a teacher of any race can teach a student of any race. Whether it be white students, Asian students, black students or anyone else who needs to be taught. I believe that if a teacher can relate to the current situations of the students it would help, but I cannot and will not say that teacher who can’t relate to the personal life of a student can’t effectively teach. At the end of the day, the only thing the teacher absolutely needs to 100% relate to is the subject that they are teaching. I wouldn’t dare say or imply that children who are from low-income families can’t learn unless they have a teacher that can relate to certain personal experiences that they have. I do agree that it helps and would make it BETTER for some students to have someone in whom they can identify with, but this is not something that is needed. All teachers should make it an issue to care about all of their students and to communicate to the students that they care about them succeeding in life, not just in their class so that they can receive a good percentage in students passing standardized tests. I believe that this can help the student not feel like their teacher is out to get them, but that they are out for them which tells them its not Them VS Me, but us against the curriculum.
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i think you have a good handle on what we should be accomplishing in the classroom.
i think there is a line to be drawn. (not necessarily a convenient straight one but more like a contour map that takes into account more than just two dimensions to describe the lay of the land.
the point is that we should be sensitive to needs of people and yet be firm enough in our policies to uphold the highest of principles. sometimes you just have to endure a baby’s crying till it falls asleep.
life is hard for most people and if we spend too much time trying to coddle everyone we may do society the disservice of stunting it’s growth. we all have to get over the past; yours, mine, the catholic church, the salem witch trials, jim crow, pearl harbor, and pretty much the whole span of human history. we should learn from past errors but not dwell in them. hope is what education should offer us rather than doom, despair and discontentment. it should be realistic hope that employs strategies for overcoming present obstacles to prosperity.
rising up is not easy. freedom is a constant struggle. education ought to be about fostering that struggle to train students to meet the challenges of their time rather than simply commiserating with the less fortunate.
i don’t want to be made comfortable with a perceived disadvantage but rather to break forth with disciplined determination.
here’s an interesting scripture:
he that is born into his kingdom cometh to naught. but the poor son riseth up out of his prison to rule.
that’s a paraphrase but i think i captured the gist of it.
the greatest accomplishments have mostly been made in the midst of a dire struggle between a person and the prevailing nature of things.
i’ve always had a nagging feeling that nature was against me. what do i do about it?
adapt and overcome.
i remember working at one place where educational assistance was provided without reserve. very few people took advantage of it because it seemed easier to complain about working conditions and insufficient pay. what regard was there to free market? an opportunity to better ones self was practically thrown at us. where were the takers.
could it be possible to make things too easy and thereby render the experience meaningless and uninspiring?
who’s going to brag about climbing Knoll Everest?
ok, ok, i should get to the point. good blog mah man!
I totally agree with what you are saying in your blog. It is the part of the teacher to teach which requires patience towards their students, credible knowledge and understanding of whatever it is they are teaching, and confidence that they can teach someone different from themselves. It is the part of the student to be totally teachable and willing to learn, from someone who may be the same as, or different from them. The ability to teach or learn has nothing to do with one’s race, sex, creed, etc., or their ability to relate or lack thereof to someone else.