Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: White Intern in a Black inner-city school My sister, Gina, who is a young White girl, started her student teaching in a predominantly Black school in inner-city America. She initially approached her job with optimism and purpose. However, she began to experience her first doubts with the presentation of an emotionally charged poetry reading at an all-school assembly. The poem painted a picture of the oppression of the African Americans by the European American majority. My sister was moved by the poem and accepted the historical truth of its message. At the same, she said she wondered what educational effects of the poem were and whether it would affect her legitimacy as a White teacher in a Black school. She talked to me about her experience. I am an experienced teacher, but I could not answer whether poems like that have any educational value, and whether or not my sister should worry about her legitimacy as a White teacher. I don't what she should do in this specific situation. Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) Universities need to better prepare students to go to a school where they will me the minority. When a university sends a White teacher to an inner-city Black school or a Black teacher to a White school for an internship, the college students need better cultural training (i.e., specific cultural coursework, practicum or volunteer work in community organizations within the community) for the culture they are going to be working in BEFORE they are sent to the school setting. Even more, the public school students deserve individuals who are better prepared to function in their culture. From my experience, this used to be more of a racial issue. Today, however, it is almost equally becoming a social economic issue. It is critical to remember that schools are designed to serve the children, not adults studying or working in the school. From a curriculum perspective, educational literature recognizes that students learn from relevant content. I need additional information regarding what took place prior to the poem being read, was the poem analyzed during the assembly after it was read, and did the students engage any follow-up activities after the assembly? What was the purpose of the assembly? Not enough information was provided to determine if there was educational value to the setting in which the poem was read in the assembly.