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 understand Gina's response and I believe I would have the same doubts in a similar situation. It is important for Gina to believe in herself as a teacher and know that she can overcome any challenge that she may face. We can't change the past, but we can embrace it and learn from it in order to have a better future. Her role will still be to educate her students no matter what race or culture they are. The poem just reminds us how far we came, Gina can focus on the good and teach her students acceptance and love from it.