Reflection

In my research on the topic of multicultural education, I was upset to find that in certain areas I fell into a category of teachers who were unaware.  Unaware of the prejudice some of my students were facing, unaware of the negative stereotypes some of my students held about their own race, unaware of  the underlying data that is collected within the school system based on ethnicity, and unaware of my own lack of being an intentional educator who creates learning experiences that will connect to my students on a cultural level.  However, I have since put into practice many of the strategies provided in my research, many of which have involved contacting the families of my students to get to know more about their home life and family relationships.

In addition, after watching the video created by the New York Film Academy student, I decided to examine my students internal views on race through their artwork.  Below are some of the drawings my students created in response to a Choosing Healthy Activities and Methods Promoting Safety class conducted by the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.  Students created posters about drugs, alcohol, dealing with stress, kidnapping, violence, and other similar topics.  In image 1, a Gifted African American girl in my class drew a Caucasian girl to represent herself dealing with the stresses of school.  When I asked her why, she responded, “Because it’s easier to draw and looks prettier.” In image 2, the student drew two characters, one colored over in brown and labeled “mean”, the other colored over with light gray and labeled “nice.”  I asked this student, a young African American boy in fifth grade, what it represented and he said, “one kid is picking on the other kid because he is doing his work”  I asked him why he chose the colors he used to color over the characters, his response: the mean kid is brown because he’s bad and being a bully, but he didn’t have a white crayon so he used gray for the other and he’s nice and doing his work so he can make a good grade.  In Image 3, a young African American girl drew a picture of a student talking to a trusted adult for advice.  The student is colored with a darker skin tone, and the “trusted adult” is represented as a Caucasian.  Upon reflection, I realized that for this student and many others in our school, this was their reality.  As a predominately Caucasian staffed school, our minority students only had five adults who were also minorities they could turn to as a trusted adult who may share their personal culture.