What do we do when a subconscious environment of discrimination begins to effect the social structure of middle school?
I can't help but notice the racial discrepancies in my current position. The school I am in is demographically split 40% African American, 29% Hispanic, 29% Caucasion, and 2% that is split between Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern, and African. Yet my "honors" classes are roughly 80-90% white, and of these, the majority of students can be sub-categorized as upper-middle class. Don't get me wrong, the students in these two "honors" classes are great, but so are the students in my "regular" classes. I have heard the overplayed comments from "certain" staff that indicate a preference for "certain" classes and "certain" students. Unfortunately, my short yet diverse experience has revealed this "certain" disease affects most middle schools, not making it okay but as a new teacher these certain symptoms are tough to cure. I digress. In my oblivious first weeks in a new school and new area code I began to detect a social divide within the students, but with so many worthless demands to appease the child that was left behind I could not afford to critically analyze the social structure of our school.
After I gave this child a metro pass, I started to observe how the students interacted with each other, both within our team (roughly 90 students) and our team’s dynamics with other teams. What really caught my attention was that our minority students immediately began interacting with minority students from other teams, almost a fellowship of diversity - this was followed by the incessant chant of "why can’t we be on team 6-4 or team 6-1. . ." but I digress again- where as the Caucasian students stuck to inter-team socializing. What was even more surprising was the palpable connection between Latino and African American students. Upon recent observations, I associate this more with a bond between the “have nots” than minority brotherhood, but either way it is an obvious social structure.
“Where does this interesting dynamic transcend from?” you ask bluntly.
This chasm in the social structure of our school is glaringly recapitulated in the social structure of our middle school's community. The "honors" parents are the adults who are actively engaged in dialogue with myself as their child's educator. And they have formed their own little community of close knit high achievers that circulate in the upper-echelon-team of society. Both teams, inside and out of school are tough to access without significant financial or political backing. So what do we do as educators? I of course am still learning myself and that is part of the reason I have started this blog, but to kick things off I will offer two of my humble methods to link the seemingly perpetual social divide.
Extracurricular activities: The most successful place I found to build a bridge of inclusion is after school. My friend and I have started a soccer club that has attracted the likes of ALL students at our middle school. I have self-contained male students epically battling for the ball against high society females. Every Tuesday and Thursday we go outside with two dilapidated soccer balls and for an hour everyone becomes equal. I challenge the kids learn each others names and some other characteristic of my choosing, and the soccer stars are then repeatedly quizzed on said objectives. I have begun to see the lasting affect of this program in our school. No longer is that the black kid in a regular class, now his name is Devonte, he loves wolves, and he is my teammate.
School activities: Fight for the students who don’t have someone fighting for them. I have had several examples of students who should be in my "honors" class, purely based on test scores, but because their parent did not call, the student was not included in the roster. I demand these students be placed in my class and then make sure they succeed.
In the end, these are little actions that may result in little consequence on the cosmic scale. My hope and dream is to do away with these ridiculous titles of academic level, which would abolish strategies to build bridges. With every student spread randomly throughout every class, and the teachers providing supplemental challenges to those who can handle it, we will not have this divide in schools. And maybe, just maybe, the idea will spread beyond our school property to the impoverished community beyond.
This is why I have started this blog, to talk, to question, and to ultimately act.
4 comments:
My question as a teacher educator is how do we go about developing more new teachers with the desire and courage to be change agents like the teacher above. I work with over 500 student teachers per year preparing to enter classrooms and significantly impact the lives of students. It is rare that I observe a preservice teacher who has moved beyond the "nuts and bolts" of management and instruction and made the wider connection between education and the larger social landscape. We need teachers who are awake to the social stratifications which are mirrored within our schools and who are willing to challenge accpeted societal norms. These small things that the teacher talks of above can create waves of change in a school community. Consider the ramifications if even 25% of our teachers pursued similar goals within their schools. We must make preservice teachers aware of the immense power they possess for affecting change and equally for perpetuating the status quo. And, we as higher educators, must be willing to support and defend these new teachers when they take risks and attempt to transform individual lives and social structures. As Camus said, Some sya hope lies in a nation; others in a man. I believe rather it is awakened, revived, nourished by millions of solitary individuals whose deeds and works every day negate frontiers and the crudest implications of history."
My question as a teacher educator is how do we go about developing more new teachers with the desire and courage to be change agents like the teacher above. I work with over 500 student teachers per year preparing to enter classrooms and significantly impact the lives of students. It is rare that I observe a preservice teacher who has moved beyond the "nuts and bolts" of management and instruction and made the wider connection between education and the larger social landscape. We need teachers who are awake to the social stratifications which are mirrored within our schools and who are willing to challenge accpeted societal norms. These small things that the teacher talks of above can create waves of change in a school community. Consider the ramifications if even 25% of our teachers pursued similar goals within their schools. We must make preservice teachers aware of the immense power they possess for affecting change and equally for perpetuating the status quo. And, we as higher educators, must be willing to support and defend these new teachers when they take risks and attempt to transform individual lives and social structures. As Camus said, Some say hope lies in a nation; others in a man. I believe rather it is awakened, revived, nourished by millions of solitary individuals whose deeds and works every day negate frontiers and the crudest implications of history."
I agree with the idea of all inclusive classrooms, but I guess I don't have a solution. Having had my public school education, (very many years ago), there were all students in one class, unfortunately race wasn't a factor, we were pretty much all the same, but there was definitely a disparity in financial status. I, from the lower end of this spectrum, never felt this was a problem until I decided to go to college, but that is another blog. Up until this point, it was expected we were all to do well, and those that understood the work better then others, were expected to help those who did not understand the work. Even as I went into high school, and many issues seemed to prevent me from seeking a college education, my teachers all expected me to do well, and pushed me to take the classes that would lead me to college. Even though I didn't get that opportunity until much later in life, it was because of this attitude that every child would excel, I always knew I could. Somewhere along the line we have dropped that attitude.
Good luck, I'll keep checking back.
Linda R.
I don't know whether this blog is even being read any more, by anyone - "Teacher Voice" seems to have kept up with this even less than with the class blog that he started for us - but I came across it, and would like to give my perspective - as one of the students that he was writing about, four years ago.
I was a student in one of the 'Honours' classes that “Teacher Voice” taught. I was, after all, only twelve years old, so perhaps I missed some of the subtleties of the situation. But the way I saw it, the problem was that, in this community, for whatever reason, the racial and economic divides were almost parallel.
I do not, of course, intend to imply that this is the case everywhere - clearly, it is not – nor that there were no poor Caucasians, or rich African Americans. Nor do I believe that money affects intelligence or motivation, except that it affects the environment in which a child is brought up.
However, in this middle school, in this town, the Caucasians were largely the children of people who had moved from other, usually Northern, states, in order to work for the government. Of course there were exceptions, but often they grew up in an environment in which people had attended university, in which good grades were expected, in which books were a way of life. This was not always the case with the other racial groups.
Therefore, we students began to recognize that we were more likely to have similar backgrounds, not only culturally, but also educationally, with others of the same race. We saw that, in this school, we were more likely to have similar values and similar goals as people who were of the same ethnicity as we.
I do not pretend for an instant that this was an accurate belief. Of course there were and are dozens of instances in which this was totally inaccurate. But that is how I, at any rate, perceived the situation. And I thought that ‘Honours’ was at least a fairly efficient system for dividing the hard workers from those who were more than willing to slack off. After all, there was nothing stopping anyone from joining ‘Honours’ – except that it was advertised as having more work. As I was never in a non-honours class, I am sure I know less about it than “Teacher Voice” does.
Perhaps this entire ‘comment’ is totally erroneous. But this is how I perceived the situation, when I was in 6th Grade.
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