Blog #7

Dear white teachers

I really enjoyed all the readings for this week, it’s fascinating to learn how racism have shaped not just out history but also our educational system, and how as a nation we are still in the process of overcoming racism in our daily life as well as in our schools and education environments. Even though I liked all the reading, but “Dear white teachers” was the one that stood out to me and made me wonder, “Are we trying to overcome racism in schools or are we simply ignoring it?” Ms. Lathan’s story was strong story that showed that most white teachers are not working to overcome racism in their classrooms, instead they are ignoring it, and pushing students of color towards teacher of color thinking that teacher of colors can help them more than they can.

It made me question what would white teachers do if there’s no teacher of color in the school that they are teaching, and most of their students are students of colors? How are they going to figure out a way to help them and communicate with the families of the students? Are they just going to ignore the problems that the student of colors are having just because they think they can’t help them due to the fact that they are two different colors? It’s just terrible to know that we didn’t overcome racism yet, and our white teachers are having trouble communicating with their students due to the color gap, and the social economic difference between white and black.

As a future color teacher, I’m looking forward to be there for students of color who are feeling disappointed in schools due to the fact that their teachers are not meeting their needs. And if I ever worked in a school like the school that Ms. Lathan worked at I won’t allow to be the teacher that they send students of color to, I would try to work with white teachers and help them find ways to help the students instead of pushing them away.