a black girl

This Substitute Teacher is My Hero

Friday, November 09, 2007

Ok ok... there are some points here where she crossed the line. But telling Black kids that they shouldn't eat Burger King or McDonalds because of the hormones in it doesn't seem like a huge deal to me.

And yes, cream crack does cause cancer. Ok it might not, but that many chemicals in Black women's scalp has got to have a health effect.

Right on Sister Jessica. Sugar is cocaine.

From NBC4.com
Parents in Houston said they were terrified when they found out what a substitute teacher has been teaching their children.

Students at MacGregor Elementary School said the substitute makes them call her "Sister Jessica" and take notes of her lessons.

"She said she doesn't want to be called 'Miss' because it means mistress and 'Mister' means slave master," said one of the fifth-graders who did not want to be identified.

"My child does not know what a prostitute is and she shouldn't be learning that at school," the student's mother said.The student said that the teacher said she was teaching them about health.

"She said sugar is cocaine, McDonald's should be called 'Crack Donald's' and Burger King should be called 'Murder King' because the hormones in the food will kill you," the student said.

The mother recalled when her child came home and asked if a hair perm and makeup causes cancer. The fifth-grader said she learned that in school and that the teacher said she did not believe in God.

"I take my daughter to school to learn, but not to learn this stuff and what this teacher likes or dislikes," the mother said.The mother said her daughter is scared to brush her teeth because the teacher told the class there is rat poison in toothpaste."

This would be a great teaching moment as a parent. We instill in children constantly harmful things about themselves and society. This sister had personal beleifs outside of dominant ideology--some that were helpful and at least mostly true (i.e. the horrible substances in fast food) and some myths and personal ideology. The fact is, children are taught these things daily in media and in school--all of which has information that is questionable or at least should be questioned.

I thought about this... if I had a child this would be a very interesting, difficult, but important conversation to have. Yes, your teachers are there to teach you something--but a more important thing to learn is an initiative of the autodidact. There are truths teachers tell us, and there are some dominant ideologies that are harmful that we learn as well. My parents often told me to "look it up." Knowledge was something I had to seek. I could not and should not expect to be told truths. My mother was radical enough to tell me why certain truths were hidden from me by my teachers... but I think the "look it up" way of teaching definately helped me form my consciousness... as someone who had to take control of her education.

As an example, in the 9th grade I was in this "honors" program called international baccalaureate. First years were expected to take world history. Well march came around and there was no discussion of Africa beyond Egypt. We studied Egypt along with Greece as if they were one in the same. I had questions about this, was swiftly silenced, and for the next few days brought one of my mother's textbooks from college (she was an African Studies major) to class and read from it in conjunction with what we were reading by that time, about Asia. I would have never known of any Kingdom of Benin or the history of Ethiopia without that moment of autodidact initiative.

As a parent, and as a student activist my mother knew that certain knowledges would not be given to me, and that certain myths would be fed to me constantly. Thus, she thrusted books outside of my reading from school. Initiated the "look it up" rule, and quickly I became both an inquisitive and slightly obnoxious student (particularly to white or white identified teachers).

I mean really, this moment in Houston hinges on the debates we've been having for years about where the responsibility of children's learning lies.

Labels: children, education, politics, teaching

uttered by a black girl at 11:11 PM. | 1 comments

. . . . . . Catalclysm

Thursday, October 12, 2006

This semester is, so far, a combination of fustrating, amazing, violent, painful, invigorating, and frightening. It is all of these things and not just one that characterize my day to day feelings about my life here in the ivory tower. I am learning how to take care of myself--which is really the stuff that matters in this learning expereince. It is quite easy to forget myself when so much is demanded of me.

This weekend I was slated to attend the Cave Canem Reunion. I've decided not to go in order to catch up on some work, get ahead in some other areas, and try to settle down in my new environment. It is unfortunate that I cannot do this. The workshops I would be attending would surely be a help to perfecting my craft. But I have other opportunities and other carfts to perfect. This weekend, instead of sitting in auditorums with Nikky Finney and other amazing poets, I can be working on my project--learning lithography. I will have other opportunities (maybe next summer!) and other venues to do such things.

I am also in an amazing and fustrating class on Queer Theory which is busting open my assumptions about interdisciplinary and location within my own field(s). I have never been so wrong, so often than in this class and I am thankful for it. Learning was becoming repetitive and unchallenging. I enjoy the challenge and the hard work that must be set forth in order to succeed in this course and in the process of gaining and creating knowledge.

Passing on, or sharing knowledge is another one of my duties these days. I am currently teaching Introduction to Women's Studies. It is an interesting site where my position of power (as educated) is complicated by issues of age (most of my students are exactly my age or older), location, race, class, gender, sexuality... all of these things. For example, I never quite thought about the implications behind explicitly positioning myself as a Black, lesbian, feminist in class because I feared that my authority would be questioned well enough by virtue of me being black and woman. I realized that in actuality, that doesn't really matter. That if my position as educator would be questioned because of those factors, then equally, I am legitimated in my position. I am allied with students who are taught to feel as though they have no place in institutions of learning. I am learning that situating myself with these students at all levels does as much good for those students as it does bad.

I've also learned that I am a pretty darn good teacher.

All of these things (and others that I wish not to devulge here) are really shaping the nature of how I will choose to walk through this earth. In so many ways my undergraduate expereince was not the self questioning expereince that it promised to be. It is here where I am asking myself questions I had never before asked, and it is here that I am shaping and differently molded everyday.

Labels: school, teaching, work

uttered by a black girl at 10:04 AM. | 5 comments

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