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!) I do think that being exposed to pieces of literature from different time periods and about different events in our history has significant educational value. I don't think this poem affects her legitimacy as a teacher but I do think that this poem could and should be used as a gateway into another lesson that allows her and her students to openly express concerns, issues and feelings and allows them to connect on a deeper level. A lesson idea that came to my mind in this instance may be to have students find, or create their own poem or piece of literature that deals with the same topic as the poem that was shared at the meeting. Hopefully she will be able to use experience as a platform to address the sometimes difficult topic of racism and past discrimination that has happened between blacks and whites. I do think this is a great opportunity for her to assess how her students perceive her and hopefully if they perceive her in a negative light this can be the opportunity for her to change their perception and opinion of her. She needs to show her students that she understands the problems and challenges they face and that they are sometimes different from what she as a white woman faces but through her showing respect for her students in this fashion hopefully she can generate a mutual respect from them.