Teach Out Reflection

 You generally enroll in a graduate class because you have to. I don't know many (or any) single moms of two that work full-time and say, “Hey, I have a ton of free time and nothing on my plate right now, let's take some graduate courses!” In my case, there are eight courses I need for my RIDE School Nurse Teacher Certification. Having never taken a graduate level course before, I had no idea what I expected, but I can assure you, it definitely wasn’t this. I walked into the classroom the first day timid and anxious with tears in my eyes because I just left my 10 week-old baby for the first time. I was sitting in silence, no small talk with my neighbors, trying to hide my shaking hands under the desk, while thinking to myself, “‘Social Issues in Education?’ What does that even mean? Moo-In? Are you kidding me?! I have literally never been asked what my pronouns are. She is going to make me talk in front of all of these people? If I talk, I am going to cry!” But I did talk, and I did cry. There was a room full of strangers that were so supportive and understanding that I actually took a deep breath and started to feel my hands again. “Hmmm, maybe I can do this.”

Then, I started the readings: 

"This means privilege is always a problem for people who don't have it and for people who do, because privilege is always in relation to others. Privilege is always at someone else's expense and always exacts a cost." (Johnson, p10)

“Those with power are often least aware of - or least willing to acknowledge - its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence.” (Delpit, p26) 

“Peggy McIntosh (1988) describes white privilege as a knapsack of benefits which the holder could remain oblivious.” (Armstrong and Wildman, p63)

“The White person has an everyday option not to think of herself in racial terms at all.” (Armstrong and Wildman, p63)

“Whites often aspire to have colorblindness, believing that color blindness 

promotes equality.” (Armstrong and Wildman, p63)

Wait, do they know me? Are they talking to me? About me? Have I been doing it wrong my whole life? I began to question my core values and beliefs. I started looking back at conversations and encounters I have had over the years and wondered how many people I have offended while thinking I was being a better person. In one of my blog posts regarding “Colorblindness is the New Racism,” I wrote, “Armstrong and Wildman shook me to my core.” I could say that about many of the texts we read, but for some reason, this particular assignment resonated with me. Merriam-Webster defines ignorant as “lack of knowledge, education, or awareness.” Have I been ignorant? Yes. Regretfully, the answer is yes. Guilt won’t benefit anyone at this point because I can’t change what has already happened, but I can make a conscious effort to do better. I can raise my children to know better; to be better. In “Race and Respect Among Young Children,” author Tenorio states, “Researchers have found that between the ages of 2 and 5, children not only become aware of racial differences but begin to make judgments based on that awareness.” That is astounding to me. I have a four year-old. Have I already tainted his racial awareness?


For the final project, I chose to address the issue of colorblindness. My goal was to find a way to teach four and five year-olds color insight, starting with my son, Oliver. Armstrong and Wildman say, “Do not be afraid; notice your race and the race of others around you; racism and privilege still do affect peoples’ lives; learn more about the racial dynamic.” I want my son to have the ability to recognize race and have the vocabulary and confidence to be able to discuss it, something I am just learning at forty. My original plan was to have him acknowledge similarities and differences in a group of items, such as construction trucks because that is something that he loves to pay with. I was going to remind him that each truck has a job to do and is an important member of the crew, just like each race is an integral part of society.


Four year-olds tend to have a mind of their own, and mine can be strong willed, to say the least. I have to admit that the project did not go exactly as planned. While sitting down to write my summaries for the articles I had chosen, Oliver insisted on helping me with my homework. I could have just handed him a pen and a piece of paper and made him write his name, but instead, I decided to find a creative way to introduce the topic of race in an independent project on his level. I handed him a box of crayons, Crayola Colors of the World, and asked him to draw Oliver, Uncle Dan and Titi without further direction. I was shocked by his artwork. He knew exactly what I was expecting. He drew a little white boy with blue eyes, a brown man to depict my Native American brother-in-law, and a dark brown person as Titi, a Black woman.

He was so proud of his work and wanted to keep helping me, so he climbed up on my lap and I read my article summaries to him. His little face was so sad. “Mama, that would be like someone treating Titi bad for no reason and that would hurt my heart.” Mine too, kiddo, mine too. How did a four year-old get it so easily when most adults can’t?


The next day, I read him the book, Mighty Mighty Construction Site. He loves the book. We have read it dozens of times. This time, I pointed out characteristics of each of the trucks. We focused on their color, how they moved, what they did, etc. He was so engaged. After that, we sat on the floor and played with some of his trucks that I had taken out. I asked him to separate them based on color, size, and if they had tracks. “Can you build a house or a building with just the green trucks? What about if you only had the trucks that had tracks or the small trucks?” He answered, “no, there is no cement mixer” and “no, why can’t we use the trucks with wheels?” We talked about how you can judge things based on how they look. That it is alright to acknowledge that the trucks are different and that the differences make the trucks unique and help them do their job, but that we can’t separate them based on these characteristics. We need all of them to make a whole crew. He smiled and just wanted to play with all of his trucks again.


Later that day, he wanted to build a Lego giraffe. I hadn’t thought of including this in the original proposal for the project, but it felt like a great addition. We picked out all the pieces and I asked him to give me all the brown ones. “Imagine if there were no brown Legos,” I said with the yellow Legos in a pile on the floor. “Your giraffe would look like this.” He frowned, “Mama, we need the brown ones.” I told him to remember that, because we need all different types of people in our world, just like we need all the colors of the Legos.

Bibliography

Armstrong, M., Wildman, S. (2013). Colorblindness is the New Racism. In Deconstructing privilege: Teaching and learning as allies in the classroom (pp. 63-79). Routledge.

Delpit, L. (1995). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New Press.

Johnson, A. G. (2001). Privilege, Power, and Difference. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.

Tenorio, R. (1994). Race and Respect Among Young Children: One teacher’s journey. In Rethinking Schools. 

Taking It All Home

Teaching at the Intersections, by Monita Bell explains how a female African-American student is only seen for her academic short comings despite the fact that her success is being halted by the need for her to be a caregiver to her younger siblings while her parents work. Her lack of privilege and her adult responsibilities make it impossible for her to be on time for school or get her work done. Bell states, "Multiplied oppressions accompany her particular combination of identities." She is expected to put the well-being of her siblings ahead of herself. If teachers would take the time to understand more than just what they see, perhaps they could find a way to help her succeed. Would they be more willing to dig a little deeper if she were white? If she were male?

Watching 5 Tips for Being a Good Ally helped put a lot of things in perspective. Step one is understanding your privilege. While I am aware that this is something I still need to work on, and will continue to work on for the rest of my life, this is a new concept to me. Like I had written in previous blogs, I hadn't thought of myself as having power. I grew up lower middle class/working poor. I have been homeless. I have gone to bed with a hungry belly so that my brother could eat and extra helping of dinner. I have worked for everything that I have, and I wouldn't change that. It was not until learning about social justice that I realized that while yes, there were times that I struggled or that my family as a whole struggled, I was able to overcome a great deal of that likely do to my privilege. I am White, straight, cis female. I did not have the same hurdles to clear that a Black female or even a White gay male may have had. 

Step two and four also stood out to me. 2. Listen and do your homework. Even after this course ends, I intend to continue reading about privilege and power to remind me to keep mine in check. 4. You will make mistakes - apologize when you do. When I think back about reading Colorblindness is the New Racism,  I remember being afraid to speak up. What if I use the wrong terms? What if I offend someone? This class has taught me to try. Try to say what I am thinking. Try to speak up. If you don't know the proper term, ask. The only way to do better is to try! I came across this article, 6 Ways to Respectfully Be a Better LGBTQ Ally and one of the lines that stuck out to me was:

"Get comfortable with being uncomfortable."

Language and Power

 I watched the first three episodes of "Teaching Bilinguals Even If You Are Not One." Prior to taking this course, I hadn't thought about how educators would teach bilingual students if they did not speak the students' native languages. I think I had mentioned it in another blog post, but I had never even thought about how I would communicate with a student visiting the health office if he or she didn't speak English. Someone in our class had asked me and the question caught me completely off guard. Having had time to think about it, I could use a communication board or a translator (such as google). I am in the process of moving my office back to our school's original building which has been under construction. I plan to incorporate a multilingual communication board into my new office in the fall and I am excited to make it over the summer. 

As for the videos, I loved the graphic novel that the students created. What an excellent and creative way to help them learn another language while allowing them to embrace their native language and heritage and express themselves. 

I felt bad reading Richard Rodriguez's "Aria." By gaining confidence in his English and allowing the author to find his public identity, he lost his connection with his family. There has to be a way to learn another language without sacrificing relationships with those closest to you. I find it amazing that Richards parents were able to practice their English with him, but his teachers were not willing to accommodate him by allowing him to use his native language. If he was able to use his Spanish in school, as teachers in the "Teaching Bilinguals Even If You Are Not One" demonstrated, perhaps his relationships with his parents would not have been so strained. They gave up their closeness to ensure he succeeded in a very American world. This brings me back to Leslie Grinner's "SCWAMP". He had to conform to gain any power. 

I found "Teaching Multilingual Children," by Virginia Collier to be very insightful. Educators can use students' home languages and cultures to promote a better understanding of the English language, rather than use English to replace their primary language. Allow students to use words they are familiar with, especially when learning new concepts. This would help to avoid issues like Richard encountered, where his parents became alienated because he was no longer able to use their primary language to talk to them. Embrace and encourage differences. People are not made from cookie cutters!

22 Things Educators Can Do NOW to Support Multilingual Learners

Article Summaries

Race and Respect Among Young Children: One Teacher’s Journey
Written by Rita Tenorio

The author teaches children just like you. One day in her class, a little girl was almost in tears because another student called her a mean name based on the color of her skin. He thought she would not say anything to the teacher and he could get away with it. He was wrong. Words we say to others can be very hurtful. Our words matter to our classmates. We can’t pretend that everyone is exactly the same, but the things that make each of us different should not be seen as bad things. The teacher realized that she had to figure out how to teach children to embrace, or support their differences in her classroom, rather than ignore them. When children said naughty things based on how a child looks or acts in her class, she used it as an example to teach why we don’t do that.



“Colorblindness is the New Racism”
Written by Margalynne J. Armstrong and Stephanie M. Wildman

Some people have more power than others. Sometimes, people with power don't even know they have it. How we look can change the amount of power we have. White people tend to have more power and often say they are “colorblind,” meaning they don’t see that other people look different from them. Pretending differences are not there doesn’t make everyone the same. “Color insight” gives us a better way to think by having us see that we can have differences and still be equal. It is okay to notice other people's differences, but not to treat them a certain way because of those differences. 

Going to School - Ir a la Esquela

Richard Cohen's film, Going to School ~ Ir a la Esquela, shines light on the treatment and segregation of students with disabilities. One of the topics that struck me was when we see Ruben's mother going to an IEP meeting. I am assuming the woman she is speaking to is Sonia because that is who's office they are meeting in. Sonia does not seem to know what the meeting is for, and no one bothered to inform Ruben's mother that his teacher, a key member of the IEP team was out for the day!

        Sonia: "The I.E.P. I have is for assisted technology. That is the reason they called you, right?"
        Mom:  "That and the evaluation too."
        Sonia:  "What do you want to do mam? Do you prefer another appointment?"
        Mom:  "I prefer to meet with all the people who should be here."

HELLO!!! Doesn't that go without saying?!?!
I have so many questions!

Where is the principal? Why did the technology woman leave if that was what the meeting was originally intended for? If obtaining a report from her was going to take several days, why was that not completed prior to the scheduled meeting? What were they planning to discuss then? Why did the nurse not know where the meeting was going to be held? If Ruben is having increased secretions and requires additional assistance, why would Sonia think it would be acceptable to have him continue on the bus for the next four weeks without assistance? Why is everything that is being said not being translated for the mom? How can she advocate for her son properly if she doesn't even have all of the information? 

It bothered me to see how segregated some of the special education students were. In the video, we see a teacher explaining that people only pass through the special education hall when they are coming in or going out of the building. Richard Cohen states, "There is a tendency to think of special education as a place, rather than services." One of the mothers responds, "No. Services. Because you can give those services virtually anywhere." Inclusion needs to be normalized. 

The video ends with this quote: "The promise of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act will become a reality when parents know their rights and exercise them." That is incredibly true. 

Woke Read Aloud and Gender Identity

I loved this! I was sitting on the couch watching the video on my phone  asked my 4 year old, Oliver, to join me. He was so excited to do homework with mommy. He had so many questions. I was amazed at how comfortable he was asking them and that he was completely accepting of the answers. 

• Mommy, what is a pronoun?
• What is tree? (To be honest, this one was new to me too.)
• Why do girls not want to be 'she'?
• What do you like to be called?
• What am I?

I told him that my preferred pronouns are she/her/hers. He insisted on calling me "SHE" for the rest of the night. 

• She, can I have a treat?
• Good night, She.
• I love you, She.

Well, that's not quite how pronouns work, but I was happy he was listening to what I was saying and respecting my wishes. I explained that he gets to choose whatever pronouns make him feel happy, just as Ki had said in the video. I then asked what he would like to be called.  (Click the link below.)

     OLIVER     

We ended up watching a couple other videos together. It was a great teaching moment... for both of us. 

I also read through the Guidance for RI Schools on Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students.  According to the guidance:

Some students may feel uncomfortable with a transgender student using the same sex-segregated restroom, locker room or changing facility. This discomfort is not a reason to deny access to the transgender student. School administrators and counseling staff should work with students to foster understanding of gender identity and to create a school culture that respects and values all students. Schools could consider gender-neutral restrooms and/or gender-neutral changing facility in the design of new schools and school renovations.

I appreciate that RIDE is encouraging schools to create an inclusive environment where children can understand and accept others' gender identities. This should be something that is taught, not only in school, but also at home. I look forward to the class discussion this week. I think it is safe to assume there will be some varying opinions. 

 

Rethinking Schools

 

"Race and Respect Among Young Children"
By Rita Tenorio

While reading the article, "Race and Respect Among Young Children," I imagined the scenarios that Tenorio described happening in my school setting. I questioned how I would respond to young student's racial "put-downs" and how the issue could be avoided all together. Honestly, I didn't have answers readily available, which I found disturbing. In the article, a young white male calls a young black female "Brownski." The author explains that the boy expected to get a reaction and he "counted on the power of his light skin to win the argument. He hadn't counted on Angela speaking out." Even in kindergarten, this boy was aware of the culture of power. He knew that being a white male awarded him power within his classroom similar to the dominant ideology described by Grinner in the S.C.W.A.M.P model.

Bob Peterson and Rita Tenorio.
Two of the original founders of Rethinking Schools at the 25th anniversary celebration

Tenorio states, "In my 20 years of teaching I have learned that, contrary to what adults often believe, young children are not 'colorblind.' Instead, they have an unstated but nonetheless sophisticated understanding of issues of race and power." It is evident that colorblindness perpetuates racist behaviors in children. "Researchers have found that between the ages of 2 and 5, children not only become aware of racial differences, but begin to make judgements based on that awareness"(Tenorio.) If we don't teach children that it is acceptable, or better yet encouraged to recognize and appreciate differences between themselves and their peers, then they will likely continue point out and focus on differences in a negative manner. I began to think about the TEACH OUT project and wonder if there was something that I could do to help children end colorblindness. How can we teach color insight to our youth? For additional details on my project, see my previous blog post: Teach Out Final Project - Theory in Practice: COLOR INSIGHT for Children.

After reading about Tenorio's journey as a teacher and finding the information so relevant, I went back to look at when it was written. I was appalled to see that the article was written in 1994. Have we not made any progress in teaching our youth equity and social justice in the last 29 years?