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!) Like your sister, I too am a Caucasian teacher in a predominantly (80%) African American school. I find that readings and assemblies such as the one you described do not cause Caucasian teachers to lose their legitimacy. Unfortunately, a vast majority of teachers in my school are Caucasian. Because we are supportive of our students and the contributions of their race, however, the students, for the most part, do not view our race in a negative light. I think it is important in schools to teach the students to recognize the contributions of each race and appreciate the struggles/successes that we each have gone through to get to where we are today. With this, students appreciate the teacher, no matter the race.