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 can see that while portraying the African American contributors in a positive way and looking at their success, a student may want to be like them. I think the important thing to remember here is that these individuals were not successful BECAUSE they were black but they were successful because of their efforts and hard work. This should be explained to the students and clarified because they focused on the race of the individuals more than their efforts. It also should be cleared up the reason why the focus was on African American contributors also. Maybe that part was not clarified in the beginning so this is why the students only took race out of this lesson. Do a graphic organizer with the class whole group showing what efforts the persons made and some things they might of had in common besides the fact that they are black. This will help students get the BIG picture of this lesson.