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My SL Story

My Field Experience: A Story

Colorful Smiles





My classroom is very diverse, full of colorful smiles. I love seeing Princess's and Prince's smile, and I always smile back. But I have a feeling of unignorable guilt because I just have another white smile they see, just like all the other teachers at Arlington. Although the kids are getting that they need, they also need representation within the teachers in their education. This is crucial for their self efficacy and self esteem. If there was more representation, the kids might say to themselves "Wow, maybe I can be a teacher just like Mrs. Johnson!" They would be able to have a role model of their own race, although this might not be that important to the kids. They might still have a white female role model at school, but they were forced to settle for one outside their race. They did not have a choice. It is very important that we address this issue and fix it within our community, so our kids can flourish within themselves, and also their academic career.

Unfortunately, the case of all the teachers at my school giving the students of color what they need is not true for all communities. There might very well be a white elementary school teacher out there that is not comfortable with teaching students of color, they might hold some prejudice. Johnson would agree with me. He believes that all it takes for racism to occur is a white person at a higher position than a person of color. The teacher might not feel a student of color has as much capacity of knowledge as a white, or male student. So, it is important that we point out this sort of ignorance these particular teachers might have, a statement that Johnson would also agree with.




Grinner explained the concept of privilege, or SCWAAMP which are the 7 key pillars of privilege. This holds true within my classroom. This states that white people are privileged in society-- a characteristic not fluent in my classroom. So, no matter how hard my students of color try to fight it, they aren't going to have the rich opportunities that their White coworkers, peers, family members, are going to have. They won't have that skin color that is favored in society. To compare this to my classroom, my students of color with ethnic sounding names could be automatically put in a lower comprehensive classroom because the people in charge might think they have a lower capacity for learning just because of their name, not knowing anything about their character or ability. This could be real life for one of my students of color one day.

Delpit would also agree with me. Her central theme is centered around representation within teachers and youth workers. This is something my classroom lacks. Without this, Delpit believes the students of color would not succeed due to the "culture of power" being with the white female teachers. They hold the power within the classroom, therefore they can not identify themselves as powerful because they are not represented within that power, only white females. This can have a detrimental effect on their success within their education because they are not represented in the culture of power within some schools.

Although I will still be just another white smile, I am hopeful more educators and youth workers of color will come forth and be role models for my students of color. I also am holding myself to a higher standard because I am aware of my privilege within the classroom, so I am able to see why my students of color might be oppressed in their future, and I might be able to help them cope with that, if there are no other colorful smiles in my future career.


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