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 not think that Gina has anything to worry about. I believe that your sister should talk with her students about the poem and how they interpreted it. I would suggest to Gina that she listens to every student's individual point of view and then have her share with them her interpretation. I think that she may want to talk about how far we have come as a society and as a country. I would then discuss with them that poetry is art and a way to express yourself. I would say that like art it is up to the individual to take away meaning. It is important to stress that each person's point of view is unique and that no one is wrong in the way that they interpret it. I would then discuss the educational merits of the poem. Was there any examples of rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, or personification? Then she could have the students write their own poem about a time in their life when they felt that they were oppressed or misunderstood. It is important to not forget our past. There is a saying, "Don't forget your past or it may very well become your future." So this poem should not be something that should scare or worry Gina. A poem about oppression should be taken for what it is worth. Oppression was a horrible thing that occurred in one of America's darkest hours. Gina should share the same sentiments about oppression as the students do and begin to create relationships with her them through this activity.