Prompt # 4

In Johnson's article Our House Is On Fire he talks about white privilege. He states that privilege is a social advantage that is unearned and comes to people simply because they happen to belong to a particular social category. For example, white children are assumed to be competent in school until they show otherwise. Children of color, on the other hand, are assumed to be incompetent in school until they prove themselves otherwise. Unfortunately as a result, there are may teachers out there that put there time and effort into the white privileged students only because the rest of the students are assumed to fail anyway. Thankfully I did not witness this at *Blackstone Elementary. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Before entering an urban inner-city school one might develop certain assumptions like "there won't be any white kids" or "they're all minorities" or "none of them speak English." At Blackstone most of these things were true, however it did not effect the educational system in a negative way at all. Most of the students that attend are African American and Spanish, especially in the class I tutor. As a matter of fact one of my kids is African American and the other is Spanish. For both of them English is their first language. I'll be the first to admit that walking into a class of such diversity was a little intimidating. One of my biggest fears was that the students would stereotype me as just another white teacher (in training) that wouldn't understand their perspective. After working with them, however, it became the exact opposite. I did not feel at any time that there were color or race boundaries between us. Although I never attended school in the city, my high school was extremely diverse so I've had prior experience with different cultural backgrounds in the educational setting. One of the challenges I may have as a teacher in this classroom, however, is with the student's parents. For example, one of the students I tutor is Spanish. At one time he told me that his mother and grandmother whom he lives with don't speak English very well. "It's hard for them to help me read" he said. After that session I had asked his teacher if she had ever met with his parents. She explained to me how she didn't feel that the meeting was very successful due to the language barriers. It is so important for a child to have that support at home. There is nothing wrong with speaking your native language however, when it effects your child's ability to progress in school there is going to be a challenge. I have learned that language barriers in the child's home environment is part of the reason why they are so far behind. One of the biggest misconceptions I've confronted throughout this process is that most of the children that have trouble and are behind in school are minorities. Also that most minorities come from broken single-parent homes. This is not true in all cases. For example, one of my students is African American, but on the contrary, comes from a middle class family where his mom and dad are married and only speak English. The teacher has met with them and reports that they are respectable and involved parents whose child simply needs some extra help. This proves that not all children of diverse cultural backgrounds come from broken homes.