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!) In education, we often talk about multiple intelligence and alternative forms of assessments. I think the poem illustrates a type of alternative form of assessment in that it relayed historical truths in a manner the student(s) was able to create. The same student(s) may have done poorly on a standardized history test. So yes, the poem does have educational value. As for Gina, I would advise her to befriend the student who wrote the poem. I would ask the student to help me write a poem describing the fears of being a White teacher in a majority Black school. I would include in the poem that I wish the students would view me, not through the eyes of America's racist past, but through the hopeful lens of America's future for ALL people. I would read the poem at the next assembly. Students of any ethnicity do not want to be patronized. If Gina truly wants to be a change agent for the students in the school, they will recognize it.