I teach first grade again this year. This is my fourth year teaching first grade.
The other day, my colleague ( another first grade teacher) and I were talking about her almost two-year-old daughter. She was saying how she was teaching her daughter the letters in her own name.
We both commented on how ridiculous this sounded.
And I added, “I didn’t learn to read until kindergarten and I ended up doing more than fine.”
And then my colleague commented, “But my daughter already has strikes against her. She’s a black girl. And her mother had difficulty learning to read.”
“She has strikes against her. She’s a black girl.”
And it became so clear in that moment where I was speaking from. Yes, maybe for me, a white, Jewish girl in a middle class neighborhood, I could learn to read in kindergarten and never be behind. But to hear from my colleague, not from a statistic or an article, that being a black female already puts you at a disadvantage reminded me of my advantage and privilege. Whatever class privilege I never thought I had, I was reminded in that moment that I always have being white.
I was also reminded that I teach other people’s children (to borrow the title of Lisa Delpit’s famous book.) And that their children’s education is about their children. Not necessarily about what philosophy I hold to or based on what educational experience I have had.
I’ve also been thinking about how this experience relates to and intersects with the varied quality of teaching and schools across different demographics in this country.
