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 believe that poetry can have educational value, especially in the way that it is presented. Depending on how the poetry was read and the feelings the reader placed into reading as the words were spoke can move the listeners and have significant educational value. I believe that your sister could have the students complete a journal entry on the poem presented at the assembly. In their journal writings you can provide questions for the students to answer as they analyze the poem. I would have students tell me what the poem was about, what it meant to the people during that time period, what does it mean to them (the student) today, and how did the poem make you feel. The journals can be presented orally by students or read silently by your sister. I would then tell her to stay true to herself and who she is as an educator. She should continue her role as an educator and show her students that she is there to serve everyone regardless of their race or ethnicity. So I do not think that Gina should worry about her legitimacy, because the poem does not change who she is as a teacher or her purpose to educate all children equally to the best of her ability.