When a student calls everything "racist"

[Anonymous]

"No I won't sit in my seat. That's racist."
"Why are you asking me to pull up my mask? That's racist."
"Why'd you tag me? You're racist."

These are the type of comments said to both the teacher and other students by an 11-year-old. What's a good way to engage this student?

Background: This is in a weekend program at a museum where I just started volunteering for as a teacher's aide. It's a new group of students, so there's no history or background between this student and the authority figures. In fact, since the kids come from a lot of different schools, there's so not much history with the other kids that I know of. The kids are roughly 1/2 white, 1/4 black, 1/4 latino. The teachers/adult volunteers for this particular class group are white or Asian. This particular student ended up sitting in a corner refusing to participate most of the session.

[Anonymous]

This is about a student having a hard time for whatever reason, and using the most explosive term they can legally say to object to participating. It isn’t about race or racism, it’s about a boy who is struggling. Treat it that way, and you’ll probably find a solution.

[Anonymous]

The teacher should deal with this student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"No I won't sit in my seat. That's racist."
"Why are you asking me to pull up my mask? That's racist."
"Why'd you tag me? You're racist."

These are the type of comments said to both the teacher and other students by an 11-year-old. What's a good way to engage this student?

Background: This is in a weekend program at a museum where I just started volunteering for as a teacher's aide. It's a new group of students, so there's no history or background between this student and the authority figures. In fact, since the kids come from a lot of different schools, there's so not much history with the other kids that I know of. The kids are roughly 1/2 white, 1/4 black, 1/4 latino. The teachers/adult volunteers for this particular class group are white or Asian. This particular student ended up sitting in a corner refusing to participate most of the session.

Notify the parents. Tell them that the student can’t come back if they don’t want to participate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is about a student having a hard time for whatever reason, and using the most explosive term they can legally say to object to participating. It isn’t about race or racism, it’s about a boy who is struggling. Treat it that way, and you’ll probably find a solution.

Any suggestion on how to engage the student?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"No I won't sit in my seat. That's racist."
"Why are you asking me to pull up my mask? That's racist."
"Why'd you tag me? You're racist."

These are the type of comments said to both the teacher and other students by an 11-year-old. What's a good way to engage this student?

Background: This is in a weekend program at a museum where I just started volunteering for as a teacher's aide. It's a new group of students, so there's no history or background between this student and the authority figures. In fact, since the kids come from a lot of different schools, there's so not much history with the other kids that I know of. The kids are roughly 1/2 white, 1/4 black, 1/4 latino. The teachers/adult volunteers for this particular class group are white or Asian. This particular student ended up sitting in a corner refusing to participate most of the session.

Notify the parents. Tell them that the student can’t come back if they don’t want to participate

+1

School is required. Museum education is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is about a student having a hard time for whatever reason, and using the most explosive term they can legally say to object to participating. It isn’t about race or racism, it’s about a boy who is struggling. Treat it that way, and you’ll probably find a solution.

It's a girl, but otherwise your assessment could be on target. In my untrained eye, it looks like she's latched on to a term that causes authority figures to freeze and then back off. That's what the main teacher did this past weekend, and when it was said to kids in a game, they also backed off. If it were just a kid stubbornly saying "I don't want to," we might have cajoled them or even reprimanded them if it got disruptive.

No one wanted to touch "racist," so the kids got away with more than they might have with another protest line. What's tricky is that we don't want to discount the child's experience if they are struggling and feeling like they're being treated in a racist way, so I'm not sure what to do if we hear that again next weekend.

[Anonymous]

OP my teacher instincts say that you need to lean in "Gloria Ladson-Billings style", and search for a connection with this girl, both personally and to the museum program. Make it a goal to have 1-2 positive interactions with this girl in the moments before the program starts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP my teacher instincts say that you need to lean in "Gloria Ladson-Billings style", and search for a connection with this girl, both personally and to the museum program. Make it a goal to have 1-2 positive interactions with this girl in the moments before the program starts.

Thank you. I like the idea of setting a positive interactions goal. Is there a specific reading or speech by Gloria Ladson-Billings that you recommend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"No I won't sit in my seat. That's racist."
"Why are you asking me to pull up my mask? That's racist."
"Why'd you tag me? You're racist."

These are the type of comments said to both the teacher and other students by an 11-year-old. What's a good way to engage this student?

Background: This is in a weekend program at a museum where I just started volunteering for as a teacher's aide. It's a new group of students, so there's no history or background between this student and the authority figures. In fact, since the kids come from a lot of different schools, there's so not much history with the other kids that I know of. The kids are roughly 1/2 white, 1/4 black, 1/4 latino. The teachers/adult volunteers for this particular class group are white or Asian. This particular student ended up sitting in a corner refusing to participate most of the session.

Representation matters. Why aren’t there any volunteers that look like the kids that you serve?

[Anonymous]

Maybe ask her, kindly, what she wants to get out of this program.
I don’t know what a weekend museum program is.
This is a really, really tough situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP my teacher instincts say that you need to lean in "Gloria Ladson-Billings style", and search for a connection with this girl, both personally and to the museum program. Make it a goal to have 1-2 positive interactions with this girl in the moments before the program starts.

Thank you. I like the idea of setting a positive interactions goal. Is there a specific reading or speech by Gloria Ladson-Billings that you recommend?

Here is a short speech she gave on culturally relevant pedagogy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HR8NEPK7l0 Here is a webinar on the same topic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOs8CqhvnqU Both are more geared to classroom teachers who spend more time with their students than the museum does, and are very academic as expected from a professor but also, she gives many examples that you can draw from and apply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"No I won't sit in my seat. That's racist."
"Why are you asking me to pull up my mask? That's racist."
"Why'd you tag me? You're racist."

These are the type of comments said to both the teacher and other students by an 11-year-old. What's a good way to engage this student?

Background: This is in a weekend program at a museum where I just started volunteering for as a teacher's aide. It's a new group of students, so there's no history or background between this student and the authority figures. In fact, since the kids come from a lot of different schools, there's so not much history with the other kids that I know of. The kids are roughly 1/2 white, 1/4 black, 1/4 latino. The teachers/adult volunteers for this particular class group are white or Asian. This particular student ended up sitting in a corner refusing to participate most of the session.

Representation matters. Why aren’t there any volunteers that look like the kids that you serve?

The answer to that is obvious.

But the follow-on is disturbing. If a museum cannot be representative, should it continue, or cancel the programming? Is that the proper next step?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"No I won't sit in my seat. That's racist."
"Why are you asking me to pull up my mask? That's racist."
"Why'd you tag me? You're racist."

These are the type of comments said to both the teacher and other students by an 11-year-old. What's a good way to engage this student?

Background: This is in a weekend program at a museum where I just started volunteering for as a teacher's aide. It's a new group of students, so there's no history or background between this student and the authority figures. In fact, since the kids come from a lot of different schools, there's so not much history with the other kids that I know of. The kids are roughly 1/2 white, 1/4 black, 1/4 latino. The teachers/adult volunteers for this particular class group are white or Asian. This particular student ended up sitting in a corner refusing to participate most of the session.

Representation matters. Why aren’t there any volunteers that look like the kids that you serve?

Do you know the definition of the word “volunteers?”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"No I won't sit in my seat. That's racist."
"Why are you asking me to pull up my mask? That's racist."
"Why'd you tag me? You're racist."

These are the type of comments said to both the teacher and other students by an 11-year-old. What's a good way to engage this student?

Background: This is in a weekend program at a museum where I just started volunteering for as a teacher's aide. It's a new group of students, so there's no history or background between this student and the authority figures. In fact, since the kids come from a lot of different schools, there's so not much history with the other kids that I know of. The kids are roughly 1/2 white, 1/4 black, 1/4 latino. The teachers/adult volunteers for this particular class group are white or Asian. This particular student ended up sitting in a corner refusing to participate most of the session.

Suck it up. Standards are racist.