Cultural Relevance in the Classroom

IF ONLY AMERICANS WERE NURTURED IN ANTIRACIST IDEAS, THEN AMERICANS WOULD LOVE.

I chose to start with this quote from "The Book that Made Me: Learn How to Love". It stuck out to me as I read the article and allowed me to think of the word love in a different way. If we think of love in terms of being nurturing and caring, than it is true that Americans surely do not know how to love all humans. I found myself in such agreement with Ibram Kendi while reading his article. I stopped and thought after I read this article; how am I going to teach my students how to love all humans? How do I teach them to be antiracist if they come from a life that believes otherwise? That is a big and frightening job. I think by simply doing the best we can as teachers and leading a classroom that has antiracist ideas is perhaps one solution. My heart hearts for those who do not feel comfortable in our society while there are others who feel so comfortable and high-ranking that they show racism towards others. 

Ibram Kendi appeared on Good Morning America a few months ago after the El Paso Texas shooting to discuss his solution to racism in America. I think it is helpful to not only read about these important issues but to also be able to watch speakers as they do interviews to voice their important thoughts on problems in the world today. In the video, Kendi discusses more on his belief that racism is a “temporary identity” based on the actions of a person. I think that this allows room for the idea that people can change and be better people. By naming them as someone who is permanently racist forever, they are more apt to never be willing to change their thoughts and opinions. I am interested as to what others think about this as well as any other thoughts you have after viewing this video. While it is only five minutes, Kendi brings up some good points from a book that he wrote during the interview.

         As a future teacher, it is important to take note of the methods that are offered in chapter 1 on how to be culturally proactive in the classroom. The ideas are being offered and it is important to immerse in these ideas that could be taken into a classroom now or to a future classroom. An important aspect of building community in a classroom is to make the learning relevant to all students. As a white middle class future educator, I must be mindful of who my students may be and how I can best relate to them and make them feel as though their race and culture is valued in my classroom. One suggestion that I took note of is to select texts from multiple different authors so that all of my texts do not have white authors who are prosperous to our society. I would like to note that these authors are important to share with students however, bringing in different authors offers that range of diversity that the classroom needs. I struggle to say whether I am in favor of the method on having students write about their life experiences and identities as a way of being culturally proactive. Some students could be weary of reliving past experiences and therefore I may eliminate that aspect and use the identity writing only.

         In conclusion, at the end of chapter 1, a specific statement stuck out to me that I would like to share. Bob Fecho states in the conclusion that, “Rather than see it as a state of being you will eventually achieve, recognize that it is a process of becoming” (30). Times change and this means that we as educators must change as well. There is no such thing as achieving perfection and staying in that one space, but we can continuously work towards improvement.