While working at a large high school, I have an insider’s view of the educational scene. As a classroom instructor, I understand that teaching is only one facet of the teaching-learning process, a process whose success is focused on effective communication.
Communication is undermined when students feel they are of little importance to the teacher or the school. What teachers do in the classroom is important because the people who come to learn are important. This attitude toward students is expressed in a number of ways, including: careful design of a course that meets the diverse needs of students, dedication of energy to class preparation, clear expression of one’s participation in the teaching, respectful treatment of students. on the give and take of classroom interaction, and the notion of classroom management.
The expectation of the teacher is equally important and is manifested in the attitude of the teachers. Unfortunately, some darker-skinned students, who are generally followed up in lower-level courses, share stories of teachers who have lower expectations for them.
As an educator, I understand how stressful it can be to have what appear to be unresponsive bodies in the classroom, especially when great care and planning has taken place. Early in my teaching career, it was discovered that not everyone would get As and B, but also evident as an educator, it was my obligation to instruct all students fairly and properly. I also refrained from forming preconceived opinions about students based on a previous teacher’s experience with a student. Every year, several students do not do well in other teachers’ classes, but they get As, B, or C in my class. The former is not known until the student is at home receiving reprimands from the office by an administrator.
Similarly to some of the students who have negative experiences with teachers, my first year of teaching was quite a challenge, not the notion of teaching itself, but the people inside the building made it very difficult for a new teacher to survive. Fortunately the students supported me. afloat. The first year that I had my own classroom it was a wonderful experience. I developed excellent relationships with my students and some of my colleagues. I also learned that some of the older traditional teachers and professors weren’t happy to see my young, dark face. I noticed the stares and rumors that he was using drugs that often came to my mind. I had my teaching credentials though: I started teaching with my Master of Teaching, something some teachers didn’t have, but it didn’t seem to matter. Typically, a master’s degree is required within five years of teaching. Also, all my evaluations of the administrators came out well. Still, my colleagues found a way to make my life miserable. In the winter of my first year of teaching, I found myself in the assistant principal’s office along with a union representative and the president of social studies. The reason I soon found out was to open a learning center in my hometown, a completely different city and state.
When the center was inaugurated, a newspaper article about the day the center was inaugurated appeared on the front page of the local section. The former teacher union president lived in New Fairfield and read the newspaper. He handed the article over to some managers, which is quite ironic considering that the union is supposed to protect its workers. The newspaper wrongly stated that the learning center opened its doors between 3: 00-3: 30 pm. The center actually opened between 3:15 and 3:30, allowing the allotted 30-35 minute drive from work. It was not possible to open the center at 3:00 p.m. because the work did not finish until 2:35 p.m.
Once the coordinator asked me with conviction if I had left work early. She said, “Did you leave work early yesterday?” I said no. “She said,” Someone said they saw you leave early yesterday. “I thought about it and remembered that I went to lunch but came back. Fortunately for me, my soon-to-be colleague, who was a teaching student at the time, asked me if my girls (I was the coordinator of the girls step team) could participate in the Human Rights Symposium. I remembered this and told the coordinator about the conversation and told her to ask the teacher-in-training. Of course I did. he did and then grudgingly apologized.
The story in the newspaper clearly raised concerns about my leaving work early, but they were unfounded. In addition to teaching at the center, she was also starting a test prep course in high school and had sent copies for a test prep session offered in the after school program. To my surprise, one of the members of the social studies department took the copies from the copier room before completing them to the social studies chair, which led me back to the assistant principal’s office. When they asked me why I had sent multiple documents to the copy room, I reminded them that I was also teaching an SAT course in the after school program. No apologies were received, but copies were returned.
My first year teaching was miserable and if it weren’t for my mother, I probably would have left the profession a long time ago. I called home almost every day crying with stories like the one above. I was 21 when I started teaching and sometimes I wonder if I hadn’t heard from my mom where she was, what she was doing. I have discovered that helping others is my purpose.
That said, the harsh reception I received in my early years shouldn’t come as a surprise to others when complaints of abuse arise among students. The following discussion with a security guard named Jim * confirmed the mistreatment that students of color sometimes receive from white teachers. Jim told me that during lunch one day, a teacher while walking down the hall came across a Hispanic student. Although it may have been an accident, according to Jim, the teacher told the student, “Hit me again and I’ll pour you my hot coffee.” Jim said that both he and the student were surprised by the teacher’s comments. Jim reported that the student had been talking to his friends and had not bumped into the teacher. The student looked at the white teacher and said, “Anyway, I didn’t hit you.”
Later, Jim, motivated by what he had just witnessed, approached an administrator to inform him of the event. The manager’s response was insensitive according to Jim. He said the administrator told him that the teacher had threatened to go to the union and claimed that Jim had threatened his safety. Upon receiving this news, Jim told the administrator what he had witnessed again and that he had not threatened anyone. The manager said: “You didn’t see anything, there was a lot of noise at lunch.” Jim said, “Yes, I did” and repeated what he witnessed. Again, the manager said, “He didn’t see anything. There was a lot of noise during lunch.” Jim was irritated when he noticed the signal. Jim later told me that he just walked away in dismay.
Many other incidents continue, according to Jim and other security guards. Students aren’t the only ones to come across disrespectful treatment, but teachers of color receive inconsistent reprimands. For example, two tenured teachers, one white and the other Hispanic, had gone for a run at the end of the school year during their break time, and when they both returned to school, the Hispanic teacher received an email and was asked about their whereabouts. and why he had gone for a run. After the principal asked him to come to the office, he proceeded and once there he looked around. He saw that the other teacher was not present and left the office. When questioning the other teacher, the Hispanic teacher learned that he was the only one summoned to the office.
Disrespectful encounters between white administrators and teachers of color and white administrators and white teachers with students of color continue. Talking to security guards at school gives me inside information about racial disparities in suspension, both on and off school. Students of color are suspended at a higher rate than white students nationally. According to Jim, when Caucasian students are caught with drugs, the response does not involve any punishment because their parents may be on the Board of Education, district employees, or are attorneys.
Again, to draw a parallel to the racial inequalities that exist in institutions, it took me three full years of teaching before I could teach a law elective, even though I enrolled in a doctoral program in criminal justice beginning my third year. , and for years there was a struggle to achieve equitable teaching loads. On the other hand, the white teachers in my department, who are not in a doctoral program, begin their first year teaching law electives. If I can be treated in this way as a polite adult, imagine how students are treated. There have been some improvements, but the list of injustices continues (to be discussed later).
* Name changed.
Honest talk