White Teacher Fails Part 4: Parents
I am ashamed that I have allowed white parents to bully me to the point where I think twice before giving consequences to their children.
Read MoreI am ashamed that I have allowed white parents to bully me to the point where I think twice before giving consequences to their children.
Read MoreDuring my first year teaching, I was assaulted by a student. For the last thirteen years, since I started teaching at twenty-one, this is how I have worded it.
But the word “assault” is a shortcut. It is a knife meant to neatly separate me, the innocent victim, from my student, the scary perpetrator. But what happened was not clean and simple.
Read MoreI was centering curriculum on my own white experience rather than the needs of my students.
Read MoreHere is my plea to other teachers: don’t deprive students of meaningful learning opportunities as a disciplinary technique. Studies have shown that students of color are much more likely to be given harsher disciplinary consequences than their white peers. Punishing the whole class by taking away learning experiences such as labs only widens the achievement gap.
Read MoreThe students pump their fists in the air. They shout together as one voice, full of both anger and hope. They haven’t given up. They believe they can make the world better.
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“I think I want a gun,” Sergey yawned.
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