“Until college, I had two black teachers, in total, and I never had a black male teacher until college. My second-grade teacher was a black woman named Ms. Williams (because perfection, my second-grade class picture features her staring at us instead of the camera in standard Black Mother Style because apparently somebody was actin’ a fool) and in high school, my French teacher was a black woman named Mrs. Sterling (who also taught Spanish). I can’t speak much to that second-grade life. Maybe my parents had more feelings about how that might have impacted my esteem.
But Mrs. Sterling, though, in retrospect, was a godsend.”
I didn’t have too many teachers of color in my own academic experience. I wish I did. It would have been nice to have a Latino teacher beyond the Spanish teacher. Now I get to bridge that gap myself as an teacher in my seventh year!
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What a gift that is for your students! Thank you for being a teacher and for sharing here. 🙂
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Really important point (and wonderful anecdotes). Sadly, the number of nonwhite teachers has always been low and continues to drop.
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It’s sad – we need people of color in the classroom so badly, but there are so many ways it’s not an attractive career choice.
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So true!
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I had many teachers of color, more high school than any other tho. I had an amazing black male prof for multicultural education, boy was he enigmatic and fabulous. You know, I don’t remember his name, Charles Something. but his lessons are some of my favorite memories. He had a big impact on me.
I like that my kids have even more diversity in their teachers, coaches, and parent groups. No, no, I love it. I’m convinced their world is better.
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I absolutely agree, the diversity makes everything about education richer and more vibrant. I think we do kids a disservice when we whitewash their environment…
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I had to stop and think. I can’t remember ever having a black teacher/professor. I graduated from grad school in 1977, so maybe not a surprise, but interesting to note.
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It sure is. I don’t remember having any either — not k-12 for sure. Maybe I had a couple people of color as professors, although I can’t specifically remember if they were black. Makes me think how very white that space must have felt to my black classmates.
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So important
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Yes!!
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