Mar 5, 2018 12:00:00 AM
This tweet made me wonder whether Dayanna/Tiana kept a poker face during her anti-bias training, because I’ve seen teachers exchange discreet eye-rolls during their diversity classes, and it's hard to tell if they thought the training sessions were absurd, or if they rejected the reality of institutional racism in schools.
He labeled his students "criminals," saying they stole from teachers, dealt drugs in the hallways, had sex in the stairwells, flaunted their pregnant bellies and tossed books out windows. He dismissed their parents as unemployed "project" dwellers who subsist on food stamps, refuse to support their ‘baby mommas’ and bad-mouth teachers because their no-show teens are flunking. He also took swipes at his colleagues, too—“union-minimum" teachers, literacy specialists who "decorate their office door with pro-black propaganda," and security officers whose "loyalty is to the hood, not the school."This Chicago teacher saw himself as a victim of his violent school—and insisted many of his colleagues shared his views—but instead of trying to change the system, he drew attention to a blog that he had to know would make it impossible for him to keep teaching. He, too, was young and untenured, so it was easy to get rid of him. His principal concluded: "He's lost his credibility. He lost the faith and trust of his students." So make no mistake. Dayanna is not alone. These beliefs exist in our schools, and these teachers shape our children—their psyches, expectations and outcomes. We can give these teachers all the anti-bias training in the world, but that is only going to harden their views. The only way to root out this ugliness is to give credence to the students, parents and peers who complain about these beliefs and behaviors—but are too often dismissed by administrators who don’t want to address the complaints.
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