EDUC 333: Interview of African-American Individual Regarding Educational Experience

My first reaction to the interview? I am equally surprised and not surprised.

Let me explain.

Yes, I am completely surprised that throughout Sydney's entire educational experience she never had a time where she felt race affected her in a negative way. No negative classroom experiences, and no issues with teachers. That is AMAZING, and once we got into where she grew up and her family background, I became less surprised about the lack of negative experiences. Sydney never had the chance to let race set her apart. A lot of this seems to have been because of the success of her parents, along with some successful teachers, and the way they challenged her to be her absolute best. She grew up in Barrington, IL before moving to Bloomington, IL in 3rd grade and if you have never heard of Barrington, it is quite an affluent neighborhood. Sydney mentioned that Mercedes were the typical types of cars people drove. Here is a picture that came up when I googled houses in Barrington, IL:

Granted, I cannot say for sure what her house looked like, but googling some images helped put in perspective that this is a very wealthy area. So I thought about it, Sydney lived in this type of community for the first part of her childhood (She described Bloomington as still very nice, except trade the Mercedes for a Honda), with two successful parents...her race could not set her apart as she was living the same lifestyle as all the whites in her neighborhood.

Success was everywhere she looked, and when she told me about how much her parents influenced her belief about success, it made sense why she worked so hard in school. Growing up, kids need positive role models like them who represent something they can also achieve. Not every one of our students are going to have parents fulfill that role, so as teachers we need to work hard to introduce students to role models who represent their goals and dreams. Oftentimes, in multicultural settings, we find kids who have grown up being told they would never make it which leads kids to develop a tendency to give up. On the classroom level, teachers can make the first step to help reprogram students attitudes about what they can achieve. It may take consistent efforts on the teachers part, but we have the power to unlock students hidden potential! 

What stuck out to me the most about why Sydney's classroom experiences were so successful were the following two common themes in her responses:

1. High Expectations

The self-fulfilling prophecy regarding education always finds itself to be true. When teachers expect students to fail, students will fail. When teachers raise the bar, and have high expectations for all students, things start to look differently. Slowly but surely, students start to believe in themselves as well. It sounds cliche but when you truly believe in your students and continue to tell them that they can do something, be something, and that they can make it....the results are powerful. 

2. Respect 

When Sydney said, "You can’t expect respect without giving it," my first thought went to the movie Freedom Writers. 

I have heard various students talk about how disrespect from their teachers gives them permission to be disrespectful back. Sydney described respect as a two way street. Respect goes a long way. Teachers need to show respect to students but students equally need to show teachers respect if they want to receive it back. 

Sydney's advice for future teachers like me working in a multicultural setting is so great because none of her suggestions are challenging to do- Showing students respect, being there for them if they need you, keeping their needs in mind when teaching- none of these things are impossible- yet for some reason so many others are not getting the same experiences as Sydney had in her classrooms. We need to know that stories of teachers who "got it right" are out there, and that the stories of their students positive experiences can shape us as we step into our future classrooms. 

The component I will close with is her thoughts on colorblindness. Sydney seemed to agree with the standpoint that me and my classmates had post debate- that you cannot brush race under the rug. You cannot deny the things that make students unique, you cannot deny their experiences, because those are the things that make the students who they are. I wondered if the friends that Sydney mentioned who told her that she "talked and acted white" were experiencing a bit of colorblindness themselves. They seemed to remove her from her race and place her into a different category. As teachers we cannot remove students from their race. We cannot remove them from the stories and the history connected to their race. 

I close with an article that Michele and I looked at when planning our debate against the idea of colorblindness.

http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-36-fall-2009/feature/colorblindness-new-racism