Reply to MLK Day education-Teacher not equipped to handle questions on race

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Trying to figure out how to handle this.  In DC's second grade class in a very white school and white class with a white teacher (white community), a child giving an example of racism, looked around the room gave an example that DC would not go to the same school as he and his classmates--this is fine, just normal observation from a child.  How did the teacher handle this?  By responding, "so cuckoo, right?"  DC came home and asked if she would be considered white or black (we are neither).  I explained some history and said that it wouldn't matter what color she was, that what was done back done was wrong.  I am just concerned that a teacher was not able to handle this question properly.  DC is upset that this would happen to her (welcome to the world!)  I am upset that the teacher was not able to create a safe space for DC and also chose to educate in a simplified way.  Also, I still don't know what the other kid or the class understood.  I am tired of DC coming home saying she can't be Elsa when she plays with friends, etc.     Guess we should just move.[/quote]

Bringing up an entire topic on race with 7 year olds is not an easy task.  It requires preparation.  I wouldn't expect a teacher to address it on the spot.  Instead, I'd hope that s/he would honor it, table it and then address it the next day, for example.

Furthermore, you're clearly a minority if you're not calling yourself white.  So YOU should have brought up the issue with your child, as home is a safe place.  Instead, you glossed over it as well.  While historically, we've made some damaging mistakes, these mistakes still haunt us today, and that's apparent in the other child's response.  But you ignored it.

Furthermore, her issue with "Elsa" is yet ANOTHER example that needs to be addressed.

Remember that teaching starts at home.

And if this continues and the teacher avoids the topic in the future, then you can step in for your child.  [/quote]

Also imposing all of the tensions of racial relations in the US on to your DC who was used as an example in the class would have been entirely inappropriate. I am a teacher and I would not have felt comfortable getting into right then and there because it would have put your DC on the spot. She kept it lighthearted and moved away from that specific focus. I get the concept of teachable moments, but you have to be really careful about how you get kids to focus on the single person of color in a classroom. I'm not saying her decision was "right," but I do think that it could have come from a legitimate place.

The Elsa stuff is not the teacher's fault. [/quote]

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