Black Teachers Matter

As I impose the 39th week of school- aka Summer Home School, I am thinking a lot about remote learning.  As the school chancellor and his minions said last night in a technically challenged info session, no one knows what fall will really look like. Parents are being asked to make decisions about remote learning versus hybrid instruction without having any information to make these decisions.

But I solder on and force my kid to stay engaged with some type of instruction and other kids while we shelter in place before embarking on our next camping trip.  So far in addition to his regularly scheduled violin lessons (which sadly replaced the Suzuki institute in the woods) he has:

• History of Composers (taught by his private violin teacher through BkCM)
• Vote For Me! A free course on the workings of our political system through Varsity Tutors
• Puzzling With Pythagoras- A 2 day fun math class  through Outschool
• STEAM: Activism and Wireframing and Coding course sponsored by MoCADA.
• SCAMP! = SCHOOL AND CAMP ROLLED INTO ONE: taught by an artist friend

Am I a tiger mom?  Probably...Well actually I'm making him take these courses so I can get my own work done, preparing to teach remotely this fall.  I don't lurk while he is "in class", but what I've noticed in passing is the stark difference of instruction between face to face school instruction and these new Zoom classrooms.  

The biggest difference is that there are black teachers and a diverse student make-up.  Of the five classes, he has three black instructors, and in one class, not only is he the only Asian student, he is the only non-black student.  He has NEVER had a black teacher in his 6 years of public school, which if you think about it, is disgraceful really.  Thinking back, the only teacher of color he's had were Asian ELA and Math teachers, and a black interim social worker who he never saw. We have a pretty segregated school system in New York City.  It took Zoom to create parity.  

Looking further back at my own K-12 education, my hazy memory can only name one black teacher- and she wasn't even a subject teacher, but my cheerleading squad coach.  WTF!.....oh and there is my fifth grade teacher Mrs. Jaworski, who I didn't regard as a teacher of color but see her only as the best teacher ever.  This is back when St. Louis decided to desegregate schools by bussing  black kids from the city to the white suburbs;  just the kids, not any teachers.  No white kids and teachers were bussed into the city, thereby making it a half-assed desegregation theory...

It is so important to have teachers of color, especially in the current awakening of the Black Lives Matter movement.  Yes, Black lives have mattered, and have since... always, but how can we teach our kids this, if they don't know any black teachers to look up to? I see my kid being exposed to different styles of teaching through these online classes and I'm also reminded of the inequity of the school system.

I've been preparing for my fall classes, and soon I'll be facilitating Remote teaching workshops to Faculty.  The scramble to remote teaching and learning back in March was a reality-check for those who have been using the old methods of Lecture based teaching.  Because faculty were so freaked out and needing new methods to use in an online platform, remote teaching started a much needed conversation about Equity, Inclusion, Diversity and Universal Design when it comes to student/teacher interaction.  We are now discussing trauma based instruction- a concept that would have been laughed out of the room if it came up 10 years ago.  Some, if not most, faculty who have been teaching for decades never had to think about these issues but now is forefront in every conversation. We are starting from ground zero through Zoom teaching.

 

This is why remote learning is a valuable instruction method, as we reflect on what we have been doing wrong and how to do it better.  I'm not saying we should all be remote 100% in the fall, but just saying that we should be using this technology to even the educational playing field.