Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: I Wish I Were Black! As a teacher of 5th grade students, I try to make sure that my students have a good sense of all the people and cultures that make up this country. Last couple weeks, I paid special attention to the African American people who have made significant contributions to the US. We read a book written by Walter Dean Myers. We have studied scientists, writers, and political figures. Students were very engaged and interested in the content. Yesterday something happened that puzzled me. Three of my White students told me that they wished they were Black. This was not my intention when I planned all my lessons on contributions of African Americans. How should I address this issue? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I am not surprised that you had this happen in your class after studying for a couple of weeks about the contributions of African Americans. I have also had this come up in one of my classes, after studying this same "unit". I found, after speaking with my young first and second grade students that they felt as if they wanted to be Black, because they (white) did not have a unit of study for them. This began many different discussions about what these americans accomplished and not what color of skin they had. It was eye opening to me that what they were meaning was that I had not intentionally taught a lesson, much less two weeks of lessons on other culture's contributions to our country and they felt slighted. It was beneficial to me to become aware that in trying to teach and stamp out the discrimination, I was actually adding to it by not acknowledging every culture.