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!) So, facts are facts. History cannot be hidden. There is an educational value to poems that express the opinions, feelings, and experiences of oppressed groups. Despite this fact, though, your sister should not worry about her legitimacy as a white teacher. At the end of the day, she is there to teach students, and it sounds like she wants to do a good job. Students respond to people who are truly trying to help them. Additionally, just because she is white does not mean that she does not share similar experiences and/or interests with her students. A rapport can still be created, and she can still be effective.