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  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 her legitimacy as a white teaching in a black school would matter unless she made it matter. I think once Gina gets it in her mind that the students will not take her seriously is when the students are going to see that through her and not take her seriously. If she carries herself in a way that shows the students that she is there to help them learn, then the students are going to respect her more. In my experience, my students do not really notice that things I worry about when it comes to historical truths. They are used to learning about these concepts. Adults are typically the ones that make the situation uncomfortable because they fully understand the meaning while the students are just learning. I think she should go in prepared and ready to teach her students and not worry the racial difference between her and her students.