Stories: Whose are Told and Whose Remain in the Margins?
When you are in the classroom, you will have students of many different backgrounds and many different cultures. As a teacher, it is our job to be aware of that rather than just say "I don't see color". This phrase is problematic because when we are ignoring the fact that our students are different from each other, we are inherently oppressing those who are marginalized. It is when we acknowledge the differences of our students and understand the historical oppression of people of color that we are truly allowing our students to experience equality in the classroom. In the video "Children from Underserved Backgrounds", she talks about the study of how children from Mexican heritage are good at working together on projects and work, while students from European backgrounds normally take turns or one person is the "boss" and the other follows. She emphasizes the importance of understanding the strengths of our students based on their backgrounds and how we can use that to help our students excel in the classroom. If we do not recognize that our students come from different backgrounds, we aren't letting them use their strengths to their advantage and possibly will be pushed aside and felt like they aren't as equipped as the rest of their classmates if we are expecting them all to be the same. In the reading "Segregated by Experience", they address our core question: Whose stories are told and whose remain in the margins? They talk about how children of color often times have a disproportionate schooling experience compared to their white peers. The author writes that "many white students experience school as a place that welcomes their ideas, identity, and curiosity, while students of color experience school as a place that insists on their compliance, order, and efficiency". Children of color are not able to express themselves in the same way that white children can. Children of color are silenced in the classroom and taught that they cannot act the same way that their white friends do. As teachers, we must recognize this reality so that we can change it.
Hey Willow, I really enjoyed reading your blog about including everyone in your lessons. One sentence that you wrote stuck out for me, " If we do not recognize that our students come from different backgrounds, we aren't letting them use their strengths to their advantage and possibly will be pushed aside and felt like they aren't as equipped as the rest of their classmates if we are expecting them all to be the same.". This resonates so much growing up in a pretty diverse school district. Not all students are the same, they couldn't be the same even if they tried. Every student goes home to a different home and environment, so why would we expect them all to learn the same way. I love that you really emphasized this issue because I watched first hand growing up of children of different backgrounds being excluded.
ReplyDeleteHello Willow! I really enjoyed reading your post and hearing all of your thoughts on this subject. I really liked how you talked about teachers saying "I don't see color" and that can actually have the opposite effect on what they are thinking. I have actually never heard that saying before but I liked hearing your thoughts on it and I agree that this could push people into the margins because we are ignoring something important about them. Another thing I really liked was you bringing up the video about people of Mexican heritage work really well together and people of European heritage often take turns as the boss. I think this is a very important fact to look at because just like you said, it is important to understand the strengths of students and that can come from their backgrounds.
ReplyDeleteHi Willow! I want to start off by saying that your post was spot on! I really liked that you went into depth about why the phrase "I do not see color" is actually pretty harmful to a person of color. I think there are a lot of people who say this without fully comprehending what is that they are implying. A quote that puts my feelings on this phrase into words is "We are our history," spoken by James Baldwin. What Baldwin is getting at is that we have to be held accountable for our history, even if we no longer feel the same way. Disregarding a negative history can lead to history repeating itself. It is important for teachers to teach their students accurately about history to avoid this. Instead of avoiding these topics we must teach our students about them and also how we are presently working to avoid them in the future. This is the only way to overcome our history, and give marginalized students the advantage they need.
ReplyDeletehello, I enjoyed reading your blog post and seeing your perspective. I have to agree that the line I do not see color does not help our students feel comfortable in a classroom but instead just gives a temporary fix to the problem. students need to know that we see them for who they are and the race they grew up in because they can not change who they were born as, but they can make choices that set them on the right path. it would help if the classroom environment was able to teach more about colored literature, history, and very important people who have impacted our countries and way of living.
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ReplyDeleteHi Willow, I completely agree with you that we as future educators need to be aware of the many different backgrounds and cultures that are present amongst the students in our class. I would also go as far to say that it is our job to be aware of and educate ourselves on the history of our students. When doing so it shows our students that we value them as individuals. In the chapter 1 “Segregated by Experience” it explains that children are too often put in rigid environments in schools. Many students are taught to take orders. This is a part of the institutionalized racism in schools. It is important teachers are aware of institutionalized racism in schools. They also need to be aware of the certain restrictions or ways of disciplining all students especially students of a certain race can be like the way people of that race were treated in history. They need to know this so they can make sure they do not treat the children in that way.
DeleteHey Willow! Starting off your blog on how as future educators we should celebrate our students and who they are is extremely important. Completely ignoring it because “I don’t see color”, is an ignorant response and shuts down everything that matters to the student. I like how you referenced the video Children from Underserved Backgrounds" in how it is important to understand our students strengths based on their backgrounds and the environment they grew up in. How it is important for a teacher to recognize their students’ backgrounds so that they are not pushed away and silenced. In “Separate Experience”, the author talked about how students of color are often punished more harshly for things white students are not even punished for. For example, black boys are more likely to get in trouble for “hyperactivity” because it is viewed as aggressive behavior. This prejudice beliefs are what causes the stories for these students of color to be silenced.
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