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!) Your sister should use this situation as a teachable moment. This scenario reminds me of the 1995 movie Dangerous Minds with Michelle Pfeifer. In the movie, Pfeifer plays a teacher who comes into an inner city school to teach literature. She ultimately challenges them by creating the Dylan-Dylan project. The students were challenged to find a link between Bob Dylan's music and the poetry of Dylan Thomas. Your sister should continue to discussion of poetry in her classroom. One idea would be to assign varying historical times or events to students and challenge them to find a poem (or song) which best describes that time period or their own thoughts about the event. Once she establishes a relationship with the students, her worries of her legitimacy as a white teacher should fall to the wayside.