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!) It is important for her to understand that many of the students she will be teaching at the school may not take to her right away because of the interactions in the past they have had with white people. She will probably start at a disadvantage with most of her students but as long as she keeps that optimism and purpose she will be able to show her students she cares and that they shouldn't stereotype all European Americans. This is also an opportunity to learn more about the students and their culture and to incorporate that into her lessons to show them she is focused on them and helping them achieve success.