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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 believe that if Gina begins the school with confidences and sets a good rapport with her students from day one, her ethnicity should not be an issue. I know that there will always be a few students who are going to challenge her legitimacy as a teacher but I feel we have these challenging students no matter what the dominate race is in the classroom. I think that the speech should not affect Gina's optimism or purpose. She sounds like an eager teacher who has a passion for her job and this is probably the exact kind of teacher these students need. I reflect on the story "Freedom Writers" when I hear this case study. Erin Gruwell, who was a White "peppy" teacher who taught in an inner city school in California, did not let stereotypes divert her from her purpose of touching the lives of her students. Although she was completely understanding of her students' cultural backgrounds, she was able to hold them all to the same high standards and she was an incredibly successful teacher.