In my latest article at the Progressive, I write about my visit to the US Department of Education for their first-ever Teacher Diversity Summit:
William A. Smith calls this “racial fatigue”— the mental and physical weariness of having to navigate personal and professional spaces that often favor white people. The educational subset of racial fatigue often posits educators of color as both the problem and solution to improving failing (read: failed) schools. No wonder teachers of color are coming in at higher rates than ever before, but also leaving faster than their white counterparts. As working conditions in places like Detroit, Newark, and Los Angeles continue to depreciate, leaders continue to push educators to do more with less (and even work for nothing).
Since the advent of No Child Left Behind, we’ve seen countless instances of teacher bashing, but the coded language used against educators has particular educational ramifications. For example, the old southern strategy, a technique used by politicians to appeal to disaffected white people, has historical ties to school desegregation.
Yes, I went in. Please read and let me know what you think.
Some of those comments made by teachers I’ve lived. My first 8 years in an LAUSD school the ‘bad’ students weren’t sent to me, but came to me first when things went awry. All of those instances suffered by teachers of color I trace back to the woefully ignorant and deficient leadership from which our urban schools suffer. If you’re not hiring colored teachers to teach, then why are you hiring them? If you can’t manage a classroom, maybe you belong in another line of work.
Allow me to ‘go in’ a bit: in all my years as an educator, the ‘bad’ teachers who needed to be fired were overwhelmingly NOT the teachers of color. I mean, do the math; in a profession where ~80% of the workforce is not folk of color, proportionately the teachers who aren’t serving the students will not be the folk of color.
My gut says the color of one’s skin should not determine the quality of their commitment to our young people; there are many teachers of color I’d never want around my students, and my dad taught with a few of them, too. The harsh truth is there aren’t enough quality, committed teachers for our children, and the effort and resources to either make them or buy them is beyond the desire of too many folks to fix it.
Author
Agreed. I’m often curious as to *why* we’ve become the hot topic, and I think some of it is also part of the shortcut method to true education reform. There’s a plethora of benefits to having more teachers of color, but none of that should stop us from advocating for better learning environments, better prepared educators, and effective and thoughtful education policy, especially for the children least advantaged.
When we (USAF acquisition) would request proposals from either GE or Pratt & Whitney for aircraft engines there would be standards, which became specifications, then design-blueprints, which were used to fabricate prototypes which led to the actual product.
The same should be done for the schools we need, put a price tag on it, and use that as the template-model for the schools our children should have.
I especially enjoyed the historical context and connections you make here, and the truly prophetic title. Agree with comments from pdexiii as well. We have much work to do to create a truly culturally competent workforce of teachers for this nation.
Author
Thank you kindly, Renee. Someone said to not forget New Orleans, but I’m like, “The blueprint is already out there.” All of this work has historical context and must be viewed as such.