Nice is not enough
As we all know educational equality exists everywhere, but it is intensified in public school system
because they have to accept every student that wishes to attend.As James Banks explains, “students
learn best and are more highly motivated when the school curriculum reflects their cultures,
experiences, and perspectives”. However, public schools struggle to teach equally to the varied cultural
backgrounds that the student body represents.The article that reasonated with me the most was, " Nice
is Not enough" by Sonia Nieto. Nieto affirms that as an educator you must ask yourself "what it means
to care about our students". Caring about our students is much more than unconditional praise,
lowering standards or respecting our students' differences. Caring about our students is being able to
respond to our students' actual personal lives and to the institunional barriers they encounter as
members of racialiazed groups.
In addition, Nieto demonstrates that at moments when we think that we are caring for our students of
color we actually harming them because we are failing to counter a social structure that treats them
unequally, therefore "nice teachers" can participate in practices of racism. For instance, teachers may
expect less from students of color , teachers may convey the message that home cultural values have
no place in school, or tolerate policies in schools or disctrits that may harm students of color such as
tracking,unequal resources, punitive high stake tests.
I had the opportinity to observe a ESL classroom a few ago, in which the teachers was always "
nice" to the students, but she participated in the forms of racism presented in Nieto's article. Students
were not allowed to use Spanish in the classroom, she expected less from her students because English
was not their first language and strongly believed that in order to succeed her students had to forget
Spanish.
Lastly, the article" Nice is Not enough" makes it clear that caring for our students goes beyond
helping them develop their academic skills, praising them or motivating them, but ensuring their
cultures, strugles and languages are acknowledged and valued.
because they have to accept every student that wishes to attend.As James Banks explains, “students
learn best and are more highly motivated when the school curriculum reflects their cultures,
experiences, and perspectives”. However, public schools struggle to teach equally to the varied cultural
backgrounds that the student body represents.The article that reasonated with me the most was, " Nice
is Not enough" by Sonia Nieto. Nieto affirms that as an educator you must ask yourself "what it means
to care about our students". Caring about our students is much more than unconditional praise,
lowering standards or respecting our students' differences. Caring about our students is being able to
respond to our students' actual personal lives and to the institunional barriers they encounter as
members of racialiazed groups.
In addition, Nieto demonstrates that at moments when we think that we are caring for our students of
color we actually harming them because we are failing to counter a social structure that treats them
unequally, therefore "nice teachers" can participate in practices of racism. For instance, teachers may
expect less from students of color , teachers may convey the message that home cultural values have
no place in school, or tolerate policies in schools or disctrits that may harm students of color such as
tracking,unequal resources, punitive high stake tests.
I had the opportinity to observe a ESL classroom a few ago, in which the teachers was always "
nice" to the students, but she participated in the forms of racism presented in Nieto's article. Students
were not allowed to use Spanish in the classroom, she expected less from her students because English
was not their first language and strongly believed that in order to succeed her students had to forget
Spanish.
Lastly, the article" Nice is Not enough" makes it clear that caring for our students goes beyond
helping them develop their academic skills, praising them or motivating them, but ensuring their
cultures, strugles and languages are acknowledged and valued.
Thanks for your post Marcia. It's cool that in your observations you're critiquing teachers and teasing out racist behavior carried out in the name of "niceness." Do you have space on campus in your MA program to talk through and process racist and racialized encounters and behaviors that you witness in your internship?
ReplyDeleteMarcia, I struggle with this all the time. I always wonder if what I am doing is enough or if I am jsut being "nice". I have only a few students of color, and they became very attached to me and felt as if I was the only adult in the school they could talk to, but something happened within the school (not with me or my classroom) and now they label me the same way they do everyone else. I asked them if I have ever made them feel like I was being racist and they said no when I confronted them, but I still struggle with how to care for them. Sometimes we have good days and sometimes bad. They seem to have lost faith in the whole school and have trouble trusting anyone. It is sad, and I hope my efforts, will make them feel less like this.
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