The chapters in the Wayne Au book for this week were pretty interesting to read, as they produced a bit of tension. The confrontations and conversations around race that were reported, especially in the Tolentino article, were extremely uncomfortable. I think mainly of Carlen's outburst at a seemingly innocent inquiring.
Clearly this indicates a lot of deep pain that results from the racialized experiences of students of color. As this class continues, I'm starting to see more and more that there is a fine line between ignoring differences of the students and overmagnifying the issues to an essentializing degree. Granted, the teachers in these chapters actually did a good job of navigating this, having the necessary conversations to breach the gaps in mutual understanding without reducing the children's beings to solely their ethnic identities. Specifically, in handling questions about the N word, Tolentino explained the positions but ultimately maintained that no one in the class could use the word because they were all on equal ground. The message was clear: that no matter what the outside world tells them what they can and can't do because of race and what discriminations they face, it did not effect who they were as respectful human beings in the classroom; this did not mean that their experiences did not count for anything in the class either. (Funny, horribly offensive and inappropriate video below that points to this cultural dialogue around who can and can't use the taboo words).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jApXLlyiJNg
Some thoughts that I had after reading these articles was about the sheer difficulty that teachers of high schools have in addressing these issues. In my high school there had been no talk of the racial experience as it pertained to the students in the classrooms--only to characters in books or people a long time ago that may have well been fictional. Also, in high school, I did not have either the language, the experience or the confidence to stare my own racial experience in the face claim it and use it as a point of bridging the gaps in understanding of my Irish American and Italian American classmates. (Granted, I didn't have any teachers that had the tools or the initiative to instill that in me either).
Moreover, I thought about the questions raised in class about the readings. What "qualifies" the teacher to handle such a discussion? What level of training or experience gives the teacher the tact and strategic agility to navigate these conversations skillfully so that they would be more educational and less hurtful? I cannot offer any answer other that the teacher knowing the history of race relations in this country and knowing his/her class.
This video shows one teacher actually discussing how she as a white women "became qualified" to handle such issues in the classroom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhXQDQZdKq4
--TAHS
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The first video was disturbing, mainly because I questioned myself as I watched it and I questioned the video. I wanted to find a meaning in the video and even in the satire, it was still disgusting.
ReplyDeleteThe second video I could've done without. That's part of what white privilege is right? She didn't have to come to terms with her whiteness until someone pointed it out. SMH. She's saying the things we already know...She's actually pissing me off with her patronizing comments about "directives". She took Delpit way too literally as opposed to challenging her own notions of what being white means as a teacher in an urban neighborhood.