It’s not the bad teachers, but rather the racist ones
With all due respect to the President speaking today of “getting rid of the bad teachers,” I fully understood what he was saying and want to take a closer look at how what he said affected me in relationship to my experience as a teacher.
In my opinion, a bad teacher does not do half the damage to students as does the racist one. The first people to notice a bad teacher in a school would be the fellow teachers. We know a bad teacher when we see one. We talk about her behind her back, in the lounge and in small groups. It is no secret amongst the first perceivers and maybe the teacher herself knows she is a bad teacher but does her best. Therein lie the DNA of my argument.
A bad teacher may be a bad teacher due to a number of reasons such as laziness, bad training, working more than one job, following the wrong career calling or any combination of issues. I have seen instances wherein the teacher turns the class over to an aid or a motivated student tells the class, “Let’s read chapter four for tomorrow”. If the teacher is well grounded, the students will also be and eventhough they may not learn very much, they remain emotionally secure. They know that at least the teacher likes them and they like her. After all, she is a nice lady. A human being.
When her students go to the next teacher, the teacher may say, “You didn’t learn your tables of four’s? Well, let’s get right to it!” There’s not a problem. The students are still willing and able to learn. “Yeeeea!” they may respond to the teacher as she says, “Now be quite for a moment while I go get your books. We‘re going to learn our table of four‘s today.” “Yeeeea!”
When a child has been stripped of his dignity due to the antics of a racist teacher, even a good teacher who is racist, he does not bounce back so fast from one class to the other. He can’t. His experience in the racist teacher’s classroom has so damaged his self concepts and self esteems he finds it harder and harder to go on. And in the event he finds himself in another racist situation, the tsunami overwhelms him and meaningful education stops. To be clear; in my opinion a student can survive a bad teacher but is very challenged with one who is racist and students catch it on two fronts; from both Anglo and Neo-con teachers who, as Baldwin writes "....are trying to be something they are not". The poor student doesn't stand a chance in hell and heavens knows he doesn't know what is happening to him.
Many of us were surprised to see the racist figures that emerged on the scene as Sen. Obama started his journey to the White House. Some of them really took our breaths away due to the fact we never know they were racist. We never knew they were capable of such conduct. It happens to students also. It happens and shocks students in an educational setting as it does to us in the political arena and we all know it happened as we viewed the ascension of Present Obama. We still see it, really! Much to our ostentation.
I am mindful when attending a faculty meeting, our principal told us of a new data program that identifies teachers who had consistently give minority students bad grades. He passed out the data sheets to each teacher to track their grading of minority students and as he was passing out the materials, he said there are some teachers he would be talking to privately.
This county loses a lot of good talent due to the fact one group of people feel they are better than everybody else and refuse to engage in a dialog regarding the issue. Sad.
Fighting for the dignity of my Ancestors,
God bless Bill Gates, WPFW, C-Span and the spirits of the unborn for the help,
BB
P.S. Some years ago the stats read that a Black male turns off from the educational system between third and fourth grade. That’s a hell of a long way from grade twelve. I’ve had the feelings for a long time if I were raised in an integrated school system and had to be confronted with racist teachers, I know I would not have graduated from high school. There is no question in my mind. They were just as bad then as they are now; dedicated to keep me non-productive. Word!
In my opinion, a bad teacher does not do half the damage to students as does the racist one. The first people to notice a bad teacher in a school would be the fellow teachers. We know a bad teacher when we see one. We talk about her behind her back, in the lounge and in small groups. It is no secret amongst the first perceivers and maybe the teacher herself knows she is a bad teacher but does her best. Therein lie the DNA of my argument.
A bad teacher may be a bad teacher due to a number of reasons such as laziness, bad training, working more than one job, following the wrong career calling or any combination of issues. I have seen instances wherein the teacher turns the class over to an aid or a motivated student tells the class, “Let’s read chapter four for tomorrow”. If the teacher is well grounded, the students will also be and eventhough they may not learn very much, they remain emotionally secure. They know that at least the teacher likes them and they like her. After all, she is a nice lady. A human being.
When her students go to the next teacher, the teacher may say, “You didn’t learn your tables of four’s? Well, let’s get right to it!” There’s not a problem. The students are still willing and able to learn. “Yeeeea!” they may respond to the teacher as she says, “Now be quite for a moment while I go get your books. We‘re going to learn our table of four‘s today.” “Yeeeea!”
When a child has been stripped of his dignity due to the antics of a racist teacher, even a good teacher who is racist, he does not bounce back so fast from one class to the other. He can’t. His experience in the racist teacher’s classroom has so damaged his self concepts and self esteems he finds it harder and harder to go on. And in the event he finds himself in another racist situation, the tsunami overwhelms him and meaningful education stops. To be clear; in my opinion a student can survive a bad teacher but is very challenged with one who is racist and students catch it on two fronts; from both Anglo and Neo-con teachers who, as Baldwin writes "....are trying to be something they are not". The poor student doesn't stand a chance in hell and heavens knows he doesn't know what is happening to him.
Many of us were surprised to see the racist figures that emerged on the scene as Sen. Obama started his journey to the White House. Some of them really took our breaths away due to the fact we never know they were racist. We never knew they were capable of such conduct. It happens to students also. It happens and shocks students in an educational setting as it does to us in the political arena and we all know it happened as we viewed the ascension of Present Obama. We still see it, really! Much to our ostentation.
I am mindful when attending a faculty meeting, our principal told us of a new data program that identifies teachers who had consistently give minority students bad grades. He passed out the data sheets to each teacher to track their grading of minority students and as he was passing out the materials, he said there are some teachers he would be talking to privately.
This county loses a lot of good talent due to the fact one group of people feel they are better than everybody else and refuse to engage in a dialog regarding the issue. Sad.
Fighting for the dignity of my Ancestors,
God bless Bill Gates, WPFW, C-Span and the spirits of the unborn for the help,
BB
P.S. Some years ago the stats read that a Black male turns off from the educational system between third and fourth grade. That’s a hell of a long way from grade twelve. I’ve had the feelings for a long time if I were raised in an integrated school system and had to be confronted with racist teachers, I know I would not have graduated from high school. There is no question in my mind. They were just as bad then as they are now; dedicated to keep me non-productive. Word!
posted by BB at 10:17 PM
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