My
class has recently started work on reading and discussing Maya Angelou’s “High
School Graduation,” which seems like it is a great story to inform students on
the context and issues that students had to deal with during times of
segregation. I actually really enjoyed
the story and have always had a great deal of respect for Maya Angelou for what
she has done and the name she has made for herself. She just seems like an amazing lady who has
given so much of herself to helping others, despite not reading much of her
work. However, I digress.
I
found that while I am more than happy to provide students with as much context
as I can for a work such as this, I realized (and this surprised me) that I am in
fact slightly uncomfortable with discussing segregation and “colored”
schools. I have no issues with reading a
text from a time period and using the vocabulary that is necessary because I
feel like texts are products of their times, but I realize I wonder if I focus
too much (or not enough) on making sure that what I am saying may not be taken
as offensive by one student or another.
I
guess when it comes down to it, I just feel a bit uncomfortable as the “privileged
majority” attempting to pose questions about other ethnicities to students who
are actually affected by this, and I wonder if this is something I merely need
to get over or if there is a better way to handle this subject. I legitimately would appreciate input on the
best way to handle discussing cultural issues involving ethnicity, religion,
gender, etc. where I am “on the other side”.
This
also had me thinking about ways to avoid potential bias in classrooms, because
even though I feel like I am respectful of diversity, I am the privileged majority,
whether I feel like that or not.
Unconscious biases might be causing me to treat certain students
differently. I try not to take my
students’ differences for granted, but it is impossible to do with how much
diversity there is, especially in our school district. One thing I looked at for tips is: http://www.stemequitypipeline.org/_documents/TrainingModules/_R1a_%20Classroom%20Tips%20for%20Non.pdf . I
feel like I unconsciously attempt to do most of this anyway, based on my own experiences,
but I will attempt to make a conscious effort to continue considering actions
like this for sake of respecting my students’ diversity.
