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!) We have to understand that history is history, but there are people that still dwell on the events of what's happened. I don't think her race has anything to do with it, but it's all about her approach. She has to show them that she's about business, but she also has to almost treat them as she would her own child. It's the same situation at my school, but when you look at how some white teacher approach a classroom full of African American students vs. another, you would see what I'm talking about. It's best if she is up for the challenge and shows them that she's there for them and would do anything to see them be successful.