Why do We teach?
Seek first to understand, then to be understood. |
Teaching is the highest form of understanding |
I begin with these two quotes because together they speak to our highest calling as human beings, and as teachers. The Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, is rather famous for writing "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." This was said by one of the characters in his play Man and Superman; in the century since it's creation it has become a popular criticism of teachers everywhere. Sadly, in Shaw's time, teaching was seen as a low occupation and the people who did it were viewed as having no other reasonable use to society. This may have established a trend of undervaluing teachers that survives to this day. Today, many of us see teaching as a great calling. It certainly is for those of us who pursue it because in my view:
those who can, do; those who can do much more, teach.
Students face many hurdles in their path to success. It is the role of the teacher to train students on how best to clear them. However, many students face a disproportionate number of hurdles and many of those are placed there by the very teachers tasked with helping the students over them.
In her now famous 1988 essay White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies (best known as: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack), Peggy McIntosh succinctly describes the differences in resources and barriers to success for people of different ethnicities, genders, identities, economic statuses, etc. Unfortunately, schools have long been one of the barriers to success for many students because public education has failed to fully represent the complete variety of experiences and perspectives that constitute our nation. This begins by marginalizing the cultural experiences of families and communities of color.
In her now famous 1988 essay White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies (best known as: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack), Peggy McIntosh succinctly describes the differences in resources and barriers to success for people of different ethnicities, genders, identities, economic statuses, etc. Unfortunately, schools have long been one of the barriers to success for many students because public education has failed to fully represent the complete variety of experiences and perspectives that constitute our nation. This begins by marginalizing the cultural experiences of families and communities of color.
Family and Community
Families are the first and most important educators of our students. Families belong to larger communities; we aim to educate children so that they may become meaningful members of those communities. But education has long represented only the cultural experiences and values of a narrow set of communities. This cultural exclusion, still causes great harm to our students, and by extension, our national community. Thus, connecting with all families and communities remains one of the great untapped resources in the quest to improve education for all students.
Researchers in 2002, studied the attitudes of educators toward families of color, and of low economic means. They found that prejudicial attitudes were widespread within the educational community and that they were a major contributing factor in how families interacted with schools (Harry, Klingner, Hart 2005).
In his book, I won't learn from you, Herbert Kohl describes the experiences of Spanish speaking students in one Texas community: "When, for example, the junior high school textbook they showed me claimed that "the first people to settle Texas came from New England and Virginia," the community and the children were insulted" (Kohl 1994).
Researchers in 2002, studied the attitudes of educators toward families of color, and of low economic means. They found that prejudicial attitudes were widespread within the educational community and that they were a major contributing factor in how families interacted with schools (Harry, Klingner, Hart 2005).
In his book, I won't learn from you, Herbert Kohl describes the experiences of Spanish speaking students in one Texas community: "When, for example, the junior high school textbook they showed me claimed that "the first people to settle Texas came from New England and Virginia," the community and the children were insulted" (Kohl 1994).
Textbook misrepresentations were not mere factual errors or omissions but direct and unambiguous insults.
- Hebert Kohl
In her book "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children, Lisa Delpit details her's and others' experiences with ignorance and oppression as they attempted to get their best educations. School personnel, teachers, and administrators consistently ignored the cultural differences and individual needs of Delpit's daughter, and other families' children as well. While all of these resources paint an ugly picture of the history and current state of public instruction, they also offer a better path. Herbert Kohl advocates for what he calls Creative Maladjustment and he quotes Dr. Martin Luther Kind Jr. to explain it:
Modern psychology has a word that is probably used more than any other word in modern psychology. It is the word “maladjusted.” Now we all should seek to live a well adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities. But there are some things in our social order to which I am proud to be maladjusted. I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to adjust myself to mob rule. I never intend to adjust myself to the tragic effects of the methods of physical violence and to tragic militarism. I call upon you to be maladjusted to such things
Kohl describes a district art supervisor who told him that his fifth grade students could no longer use pastels because they were a 6th grade medium. "Since my students were in the fifth grade, I was instructed to get rid of both the pastels and the students' work in that medium. I objected and pointed out that the top class in the fifth grade had pastels and used them all the time. The response was that "those" students read well above grade level and therefore deserved an advanced art medium, whereas my students read below grade level and therefore weren't qualified for pastels." The district supervisor would not even consider the beautiful work that the students had already done in the medium. The rules stated that they were incapable of effectively using pastels and so they could not be permitted to have them. With the help of his assistant principle, Kohl found a way to work around the rules of the rigid supervisor. He had to. As Dr. King advocated, Herbert Kohl refused to adjust himself to a discriminatory practice. "The "good" students at the school were white and upper middle class, and identified as "gifted." They were given privileges and resources that my students, who were mostly poor and predominantly Puerto Rican, were denied - resources such as pastels and reading books that could be used equally well by both groups.
I refused to adjust myself to that inequity.
- Herbert Kohl
Lisa Delpit advocates for reaching out to educators and community leaders whose experiences can enhance and inform the understandings and practices of teachers. We cannot know everything about lived experiences of every group in America and of every person within that group. But, as Covey implores us, if we seek first to understand others before asking to be understood we can do a lot to improve the educational experiences of our students. In their research, Harry, Klingner, and Hart found that many of the educators prejudices and assumptions were easily refuted on the researchers' first of many visits to the families' homes. This simple act of outreach and vulnerability was all that was needed to learn valuable information about the hard work parents were doing, in the face of extreme challenges, to promote their children's educations and to form a bond of trust and respect with families.
It is my belief that creating a safe and inclusive classroom for my students and reaching out to their families and communities is my primary role as an educator. I have the opportunity to be perhaps the first positive relationship that many families from historically oppressed communities might have with the educational system. Changing the perceptions and experiences of these families and communities could be my most important achievement as a teacher. Doing so is an essential prerequisite to achieving any other goals.
It is my belief that creating a safe and inclusive classroom for my students and reaching out to their families and communities is my primary role as an educator. I have the opportunity to be perhaps the first positive relationship that many families from historically oppressed communities might have with the educational system. Changing the perceptions and experiences of these families and communities could be my most important achievement as a teacher. Doing so is an essential prerequisite to achieving any other goals.
References:
McIntosh, P., (1988). White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies
Harry, B., J. K. Klingner, & J. Hart (2005). African American families under fire: Ethnographic views of family strengths. Remedial and Special Education 26(2), 101-112.
Kohl, H. (1994) I won't learn from you: And other thoughts on creative maladjustment. New York: The New Press.
Delpit, L. (2012). "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children. New York: The New Press.
Luther King Jr., M. (1992) I have a dream: Writing and speeches that changed the world. New York and San Francisco: Harper Collins. (p. 33).
McIntosh, P., (1988). White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies
Harry, B., J. K. Klingner, & J. Hart (2005). African American families under fire: Ethnographic views of family strengths. Remedial and Special Education 26(2), 101-112.
Kohl, H. (1994) I won't learn from you: And other thoughts on creative maladjustment. New York: The New Press.
Delpit, L. (2012). "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children. New York: The New Press.
Luther King Jr., M. (1992) I have a dream: Writing and speeches that changed the world. New York and San Francisco: Harper Collins. (p. 33).