Ask ARP: How to handle racially or culturally insensitive teachers?

Dear Anti-Racist Parent,

ask anti-racist parent I am an adoptive parent of two school age children living in the downstate region of New York State. One of my major concerns has been education and the lack of accurate information presented in our history/social studies classes. I think that teachers, even those with the best intentions, may have unrecognized bias in how social studies is taught.

I had to remove one of my children from a school due to the insensitivity of her teacher and this topic and the general lack of support from the administration. It started when this teacher used my daughter as an example of an immigrant and ended when she asked me why my daughter didn’t speak Chinese.

My children are now thriving in a different school. I am wondering though, how best to prepare myself and my children for discussing immigration as well as other topics taught in schools that may be presented in a racist or insensitive manner. I am also interested in finding resources to counter and supplement my children’s education. I also hope other parents will share what has worked for them in the school system.

from Kathy in NY

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[...] Ask ARP: How to handle racially or culturally insensitive teachers? I am wondering though, how best to prepare myself and my children for discussing immigration as well as other topics taught in schools that may be presented in a racist or insensitive manner. [...]

Comments

Lyonside wrote:

Kathy,

First of all, kudos for getting your kids out of a bad school situation! Some parents either don’t have that option, or they feel that it might be better for the kids to learn how to “deal” with bias. The problem with that latter option is that peer bias can be dealt with, but teachers and administration have too much power over a student for them to face alone.

>how best to prepare myself and my children for discussing immigration as well as other topics taught in schools that may be presented in a racist or insensitive manner

I’m not a parent yet, but my mom is a Head Start preschool teacher who’s had both ethnically diverse and monoethnic classrooms over the years. She keeps as much diversity as she can in the classroom, both in materials and books and in presentations to the kids.

As a future parent, I’ve been trying to collect books, movies, etc. that could serve as an ‘alternate’ or supplemental resource to whatever my kids will be taught in school. As they get older, I want to scan their social studies textbooks and look for potential problem areas. But so many teachers teach “off the book,” for good or ill. Reaching out to the history and social studies teachers with your concerns may help (provided they’re not like that one teacher!). There’s a chance those teachers have seen the same problems you have as a parent and want or plan to change it.

When I find a resource that may be valuable later on, I try to write down the title, etc. for later. Barnes and Noble had a “the real story of Thanksgiving” book (geared towards I guess 8-10 YO and up) right before the holiday – I’m kicking myself for not grabbing it at the time, but it went on The List.

I tend to also browse online resources for kid-friendly links. Some places I had saved for future reference:
http://tolerance.org/
http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/stradbroke/2/places.html
http://www.nea.org/readacross/resources/50multibooks.html
http://www.tapestrybooks.com/default.asp

There are a lot of resources out there, and they’re not all created equal. I think an important thing is to see anything supplemental as normal, and to try to integrate it into your household. I can picture a kid already overwhelmed by schoolwork rebelling against more “school” at home

Posted 29 Nov 2006 at 12:33 pm ¶
Gillian wrote:

Kathy,

Like Lyonside, I compile resources for future reference. Also, I tend to take the bull by the horns, but with velvet gloves.

A few weeks after the start of the school year, after I have had a chance to get to know the teacher a little bit, I ask her/him to inform me if s/he plans to do any work on (list of sensitive subjects).

My list includes “families” (so adoption is included, but also just simply remarried extended families etc), “multiculturalism” (including world projects), and “multilingualism”, but I’m sure it will grow over the years. I tell the teacher that I have resources on these subjects that I am very *happy to share*, and that I really want to *work with* the school in the interests if my child.

Becoming a representative on the school’s board of governors (or whatever the US term is) also gives your voice more weight, and it is helpful to form allies amongst other parents and hopefully teachers.

All of this is easier said than done, of course, but a little effort in prevention can be much more effective than a lot of effort in cure.

Best of luck!

Posted 30 Nov 2006 at 11:16 pm ¶
Kim wrote:

Lyonside,

You’re amazing, woman. Good for you.

Kathy, I would read books on teaching across cultures so that you can contribute to the classroom or school discussion in a meaningful way, such as Gillian recommended.

Educating yourself on the subtle ways in which the transmission of cultural and gender bias does occur can only help you in your discussions with your children as well as educators and administrators.

A few years ago the Teaching Tolerance publication published by the Southern Poverty Law Center did a wonderful piece on just this subject…I will look through my mags and see if I can find it for you.

One encouraging title , though I have not read it, but perused its pages, is “Teaching What You’re Not,” sorry I don’t know the author.

Also, while the subject is different, the approach taken to helping teachers discover ways in which they are failing children in the classroom by failing to remember their own vulnerability and compassion, minus any unwitting bias, is “What Do I Do With a Child Like This?”

Your eyes are open, and you’re already wearing your armor – good for your children, good for you.

Posted 05 Dec 2006 at 1:47 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:

Gillian: “Becoming a representative on the school’s board of governors (or whatever the US term is) also gives your voice more weight, and it is helpful to form allies amongst other parents and hopefully teachers.”

You’re right on with all your suggestions, and especially this one – the local school board or PTA is usually pooh-poohed as ineffective and bureaucratic, and depending on the size of the district and city/town, it certainly can be. Also, whether it’s public, private, or parochial matters a lot (some won’t even HAVE a PTA or board that isn’t just for cupcake fundraisers).

But just last year in PA, it was a local public school board that voted to use Intelligent Design curriculum in their science classes, and got taken to the US Supreme Court for it. Who objected? Parents active on the PTA, and a minority of the board members, etc. As someone who only experienced private school, it was amazing to me that the community was on the ball about the curriculum and was willing to take a stand.

No matter what the issue, parents do need to be proactive, and not wait for something “bad” to happen with their kid.

Posted 05 Dec 2006 at 2:26 pm ¶
sara wrote:

i have a little problem of my own to my teacher is racist to me in many ways she looks as if im the odd one out like today she put us all in groups of 4 and my group where laughing as like the other groups but she screams at me only when im done my work first in class i ask her if she needs and help she says no but the next 1 who is done she begs 4 them 2 help her its amazing im really hurt by her i dont noe if its true but from what i have seen it probabbly is

Posted 21 Nov 2007 at 3:26 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:

Sara: I don’t know what grade or type of school you’re in, so some of this may not apply, but please come back and give us more information

It sounds as if you’re noticing a bias when dealing with one teacher. Are you the only minority in the class, or the only one of your ethnic group (say, if you’re the only Latina and everyone else is of European or Asian descent?) Why do you think it’s race? (I’m not saying it isn’t, but it’s what you need to ask yourself)

You also need to ask yourself if there is anything in your behavior you might need to change or if there’s anything in your past that this teacher may (fairly or unfairly) be remembering. It’s totally possible that the teacher is singling you out or treating you differently. The hard part is whether it’s because of race or because of something else. I’m not saying that to blame you for anything, but just because it’s really hard to look at a situation objectively when you’re the one IN that situation.

In college, we had a new teacher who was only there to teach one course. He was a bad teacher to begin with – no tests so we had no way to know how we were doing, no textbooks, and we weren’t learning anything, but we needed the course to graduate. This teacher made demeaning remarks about women, made 2 women in the class feel uncomfortable by the way he looked at them, and singled them out in a childish way and didn’t treat them like college students. The class was only 6 women, 3 white, 3 minority.

We all had a problem with his teaching and his insulting behavior, and the 2 students felt that his behavior to them qualified as sexual harassment (hard to prove, but we all agreed). The problem was that when we complained to the Dean, 2 of the minority students suddenly said that they thought he was racist. Now, this teacher very well might have been racist, but we had no proof of that in anything he said or did directly. We did have proof about the sexist behavior. It hurt our case, though, because it looked to the Dean that we were just trying to find negative things about him to use to get rid of him. We had to put up with him the rest of the year, but we had professors sitting in on our classes to monitor what went on.

And of course, once he had another professor in the room, he stopped making inappropriate comments and treating people differently.

He was still a really lousy teacher, though.

Posted 23 Nov 2007 at 11:29 am ¶