A career in education will undoubtedly introduce us to students with opposing viewpoints to our own. It is our role as teachers to welcome alternative views provided they have a sound argument. By not allowing our students to consider alternative views we could be guilty of indoctrination. Indoctrination is the crippling of one’s ability to think for himself. An indoctrinated individual does have a reasonable argument for their viewpoint and is incapable of seeing alternative views from their own (Tan 2005, 51). To avoid indoctrinating students, the concept of neutral teaching has been proposed. A neutral teacher will provide students with a wide range of information and allow them to come to their own conclusions. The teacher will not input …show more content…
Judith poses the question to her 6th grade students: “Is it fair that because of the colour of their skin Lisa and Julilly (two Black slave girls) we treated so poorly?” (Aleksis 2003, 97). Judith expected her students to respond with a resounding “No” however, one student shared their opinion that Black individuals receive special treatment. This comment encouraged other students to speak discriminating remarks against other cultures. Judith did not know how to respond to the discriminatory comments the students were making and did not know where she went …show more content…
There were no educated inferences being made to support the views and they were confident in their statements without having any understanding why they held the views that they did. As stated in Key Questions for Educators, “Any talk about the development of moral reasoning and personal autonomy can only come after the child has learnt moral principles and virtues in a non-rational manner” (Tan 2005, 51). Judith’s students are approximately eleven years old in age therefore, is understandable that they have only begun to develop their own moral principles and have yet to see the flaws in what they have been taught to believe in their personal lives. Therefore, Judith could have used this as a learning opportunity by regaining the class’s attention and explaining to them how racism and discrimination are never justified and complete the lesson with how the world has come to that educated conclusion.
Before making a conclusion, one must think critically about the information available to them. As Warnock discusses in the Neutral Teacher, “For what the pupils have to learn is not only in an abstract way, what counts as evidence, but how people draw conclusions from evidence” (Warnock 1996, 143). By expressing an educated opinion in the classroom, the teacher is able to explain to her students how she came to her conclusion through critical thinking and teach them how to make their
What has changed since the collapse of Jim Crow has less to do with the basic structure of our society than with the language we use to justify it. In the era of colorblindness, it is no longer socially permissible to use race, explicitly, as a justification for discrimination, exclusion, and social contempt. So we don’t. Rather than directly rely on race, we use the criminal justi...
One of the leading Jewish theologians and a philosopher in the 20th century, Abraham Joshua Heschel, once said, "Racism is a man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason." When the word -racism- is mentioned, ever wonder what a person thinks? Racism has been with us throughout eternity and has caused a majority of people in the America to be hurt and feel discriminated. The first people to ever experience this violence was the Native Americans, followed by black Africans and later on to other various degrees (Ponds). To heal racism, expanding ones capacity to experience the reality of others is a way of understanding how it feels to be discriminated because of the differences in race (Honour). Many people believed that the nation was entering into a color-blind society where racism could be healed if not then totally dismissed with the election of Barack Obama as president in 2012 (Ponds). With this prevalent going on in our society, questions arise: how do we teach our children not to be racists? How can we prevent this from going on? Teaching this involves taking one step at a time and going from there to the next level. By evaluating the two articles, "The Myth of the Latin Women," by Judith Ortiz and "Always Living in Spanish" by Marjorie Agosin, we can identify two sources that will help us understand how one can struggle and survive through living in a world full of racism.
She goes on to tell readers of a child's perception of race with other life examples that she learned from her own students. She states that children learn prejudices and stereotypes early on in life from cartoons, story books and their own parents. They are easily susceptible these things even if th...
The fostering of independent thought is sometimes forgone in today's educational system. At times, students are encouraged to just complete their assignment instead of thinking about what they are doing so that they may fully understand their...
Racism and discrimination are common factors that current society faces, but these are not only contemporary problems. For instance, research has shown that since the nineteen century, “when cultural anthropology became an established academic discipline, one of the underlying objectives of the scholars in the field was to probe that blacks and other nonwhite ethnic groups were genetically and cognitive inferior than whites.” (The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 24) Through history constant studies and techniques have developed in order to test theories that justify discrimination, and as the quote states, one common goal was to establish white superiority among all races. This racist pattern has been repeated in America since the times
In order to reduce the “white privilege” concept, parents, teachers, coaches, etc. Need to talk with their children/students about racism. According to Copenhaver-Johnson (2006) the reason we do not talk to our children about racism is for several different reasons. One reason that...
people of different ethnicities. Such harm is observed in the history of North America when the Europeans were establishing settlements on the North American continent. Because of European expansion on the North American continent, the first nations already established on the continent were forced to leave their homes by the Europeans, violating the rights and freedoms of the first nations and targeting them with discrimination; furthermore, in the history of the United States of America, dark skinned individuals were used as slaves for manual labour and were stripped of their rights and freedoms by the Americans because of the racist attitudes that were present in America. Although racist and prejudice attitudes have weakened over the decades, they persist in modern societies. To examine a modern perspective of prejudice and racism, Wayson Choy’s “I’m a Banana and Proud of it” and Drew Hayden Taylor’s “Pretty Like a White Boy: The Adventures of a Blue-Eye Ojibway” both address the issues of prejudice and racism; however, the authors extend each others thoughts about the issues because of their different definitions, perspectives, experiences and realities.
Prejudice, racism, discrimination have always been present in society. Combined together, they form one of the most terrible and dreadful ways of treating and thinking about another human being. The effects of these actions and views on individuals have impacted society in an irreparable and tragic way. Judging someone by the color of their skin creates permanent impacts in people’s lives. A consequence caused by that old-fashioned way of thinking and seeing society in general is the effects these views have on black children education: a considerable number of American black children suffer to get a good education since they are in preschool.
James Baldwin, author of “A Talk to Teachers,” argues that a future of equality in schools cannot be created unless past acts of racism are recognized. He writes “... as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated” (Baldwin 1). This statement argues that it is impossible to be American and black at the same time. Baldwin explains that the American side advertises equal opportunity, whereas being black implies that he has contributed nothing to society, and his sole purpose is to serve white people. Challenging the American view on race is what pushes society forwards. On the contrary, students who are uneducated may unknowingly perpetuate the same racism that hold back education. In a study conducted in 2016, Maureen Costello commented that students who cannot connect or comprehend important policy, they are more likely to make an uninformed decision. One teacher commented that “’The white students ... say terrible things about immigrants, while sitting next to their immigrant friends...the others[immigrants] are quiet and afraid’’’ (Costello 12). The ignorance of students perpetrates an unsafe and uncomfortable learning environment. Immigrant students are aware of this tension because they are not only being targeted, but in a way that is not legitimately supported by facts, but rather propaganda and ignorance. Because of situations like these, administrators in some school districts have created protocol for situations for extreme intolerance built on a platform of
If the teacher were to say “we live in a world where equality is tested daily; that a black man will face significant challenges throughout his [or her] life” (Hamilton), the students’ reaction may to automatically start placing blame on the white students. While the challenges African Americans face today are still significant, it does not help matters to phrase it in a way that encourages the students to feel that they need to continue the hatred or create a need to pity them. According to Gary Hamilton, he had a teacher who said “we live in a world where equality is tested daily; that a black man will face significant challenges throughout his [or her] life” without further explaining why the teacher thought the way he did. Hamilton’s resulting confusion caused by the statement was what lead to fight between him and his friend, Michael: “a minor disagreement brought out a rage I had never known in my 6th grade body. I pulled Michael’s hair because it was blond. I hit whatever part of his body wasn 't covered. I aimed for his face as much as I could.” This section describes a white male 's features emphasizing the reason the attack occurred.
How would you like it if someone walked up to you and berated you based on the color of your skin? A characteristic like that isn’t even something you can control, so an insult of that nature can leave one furious and oppressed. Discrimination is inevitable in any culture, throughout history, in modern times, and even in ancient times. For example, the oppression and murder of 6 million Jewish people during the Holocaust, the African Slave Trade which occurred for multiple centuries, and more recently, the “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya people in Myanmar, brought on by the government of the Asian nation, all of which are tragedies doomed to happen when history repeats itself and people do not learn
“An array of knowledges, skills, abilities and contacts possessed and used by Communities of Color to survive and resist racism and other forms of oppression” encompasses the main idea of Community Cultural Wealth. It is vital to understand that students will step foot into the classroom with a variety of cultures zipped up in their backpacks, and it is our job as educators to make sure that equality is instilled/taught in our classrooms. The second a student feels a sense of discrimination, whether from ourselves or their fellow classmate(s), is when the safe and comforting environment of the classroom begins to diminish. Here I will discuss just how important it is to see the differences amongst students as an advantage
The purpose of this report was to analyse an incident in the classroom where a student was convicted of being culturally insensitive, identify what occurred in this scenario, and isolate a solution to the problem.
From beliefs in general we now turn to consider teachers’ beliefs- a term usually used to refer to teachers’ pedagogic beliefs or beliefs of relevance to an individual’s teaching. According to Pajares (1992), he stated that “teachers’ beliefs have a greater influence than the teachers’ knowledge on the way teachers plan their lessons, on the kinds of decisions they make, and on their general classroom practice (….) teachers can identify the level of students’ capacities… select and adjust their behavior and instructional choice accordingly.” From this perspective, he mentioned four main categories of educational beliefs, namely, “teacher efficacy” (affecting students’ performance); “epistemological beliefs” (regarding knowledge), “teachers’
Guiding my students to the correct path, can make students change their minds about their education. Teachers should make their students feel free to express themselves and share their opinions. Giving up our break for our students to encourage the students to feel comfortable in the classroom and opening up their dialogue among others. I believe that students should speak their minds.