While working at a large high school, I get an inside look at the educational scene. As a classroom instructor, I understand that teaching is only one facet of the teaching-learning process, a process whose success centers on effective communication.
Communication is undermined when students feel that they are of little importance to the teacher or the school. What teachers do in the classroom is important because the people who come there to learn are important. This attitude toward students is expressed in a number of ways, including: carefully designing a course to meet the diverse needs of students, devoting energy to preparing for class, clearly expressing one’s involvement in teaching, the respectful treatment of students in the give and take of classroom interaction, and the notion of classroom management.
The expectations of the teachers are equally important and are manifested in the attitude of the teachers. Unfortunately, some students with darker skin, who are usually followed 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 went into it. Early in my teaching career, I discovered that not everyone will get A’s and B’s, but it was also evident as an educator, my obligation to instruct all students fairly and appropriately. I also refrained from forming preconceived opinions about students based on a previous teacher’s experience with a student. Every year, several students don’t do well in other teachers’ classes, but get A, B, or C grades in my class. The former is not known until the student is in the home office receiving reprimands from an administrator.
Similar 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 within the building made it very difficult for a new teacher to survive, thankfully the students supported me. afloat. My first year having my own classroom was a wonderful experience. I developed great relationships with my students and some of my colleagues. I also learned that some of the traditional and older teachers and faculty members were not happy to see my young, dark face. I found out from the stars and the rumors of me doing drugs that they often answered me. I did have my teaching credentials though: I started teaching with my Master of Arts in Teaching, something some teachers didn’t have, but it didn’t seem to matter. A master’s degree is usually required within five years of teaching. Also, all of my reviews of the managers went well. Still, my colleagues found a way to make my life miserable. For the winter of my first year of teaching, I found myself in the assistant principal’s office along with a union representative and the social studies chair. The reason I soon found out was because I opened a learning center in my hometown, a completely different city and state.
When the center opened, a newspaper article about the center’s opening day appeared on the front page of the local section. The former president of the teachers’ union lived in New Fairfield and read the newspaper. He gave the article to some managers, which is quite ironic considering the union is supposed to protect its workers. The newspaper erroneously stated that the learning center opened between 3:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. In reality, the center opened between 3:15 and 3:30, which allowed for the allotted 30-30 35 minutes to 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 get off work early yesterday?” I said no.” She said, “Someone said you were seen leaving early yesterday.” I thought about it and remembered that I went to lunch but came back. Fortunately for me, my future colleague, who was a student teacher at the time, asked me if my daughters (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 student teacher. Of course she would. He did and then begrudgingly apologized.
The story in the newspaper clearly raised concerns about my leaving work early, but it was unfounded. In addition to teaching at the center, she was also starting a test preparation course in high school and had submitted copies for a test preparation session offered in the after school program. To my surprise, one of the members of the social studies department took the copies from the copy room before they were finished and took 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 the copies were returned.
My first year teaching was miserable and if it wasn’t for my mother I would probably have left the profession a long time ago. I called home almost every day crying with stories like the one above. I was 21 years old when I started teaching and sometimes I wonder if I hadn’t listened to 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 my first two years shouldn’t surprise others when complaints of mistreatment among students surface. The following discussion with a security guard named Jim* confirmed the mistreatment students of color sometimes receive from white teachers. Jim told me that one day at lunch a teacher walked down the hall and bumped into a Hispanic student. Although it may have been an accident, according to Jim, the teacher told the student, “Hit me again and I’ll spill my hot coffee on you.” Jim said that both he and the student were shocked 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.”
Subsequently, Jim, driven by what he had just witnessed, approached an administrator to inform him of the event. The administrator’s response was called 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 told him, “You didn’t see anything, there was noise at lunch.” Jim said, “Yes, I did,” and repeated what he witnessed. Once again, the manager said, “You didn’t see anything. There was a lot of noise during lunch.” Jim got irritated when he got the signal. Jim told me later that he just walked away in dismay.
Countless other incidents, according to Jim and other security guards continue. Students aren’t the only ones who encounter disrespectful treatment, but teachers of color receive inconsistent reprimands. For example, two tenured teachers, one white and one Hispanic, had gone jogging at the end of the school year during their recess, and when they both returned to school, the Hispanic teacher received an email and was questioned about his whereabouts. and why he had run. After being asked to go to the office by the principal, he proceeded and once there looked around. He saw that the other teacher was not present and left the office. Upon questioning the other teacher, the Hispanic teacher learned that he was the only one summoned to the office.
Disrespectful encounters continue between white administrators and teachers of color and white administrators and white teachers with students of color. Talking to school security guards gives me inside information about racial disparities in suspension, both in and out of school. Students of color are suspended at higher rates than white students nationally. According to Jim, when white students are caught with drugs, the response carries no punishment because their parents may be on the Board of Education, district employees, or attorneys.
Again, to draw a parallel with the racial inequalities that exist in institutions, it took me three full years of teaching before I was able to teach a law elective, even though I enrolled in a criminal justice doctoral program. beginning in 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 Ph.D. program, begin their first year teaching law electives. If I can be treated this way as a polite adult, imagine how students are treated. There has been some improvement, but the list of injustices goes on (discussed later).
*Name changed.
honest talk
