 |
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 believe Gina needs to seek out the optimism and purpose she originally started with! I can understand her reservations and concerns after the assembly. However, I believe as long as Gina tries to understand her students and create lessons that are relevant for her inner city African American students, then there should not be a problem. By better understanding the oppression the students may be feeling, Gina may also be a positive role model for the students, regardless of her skin color or background. If Gina were my sister, I would encourage her to stay optimistic and talk to the other teachers about the best teaching strategies and other things. |
||
Rating
|
||||||||||||||||||