So I want to talk about whether I can teach black boys. Because it is actually my favorite thing to do. So, for the last two years I've had a personal crisis of faith, so to speak.
So, I am a white, upper middle class, liberal, Jewish mommy. Does that automatically eliminate me as able to teach black children - especially boys? After my conversation with MC and his comments on white women generally, I got the sense that it did. Was I not listening? Did I hear him wrong? My sense was his issue with white women (and maybe me in particular??) was multi-faceted.
One is misplaced liberalism as paternalism (which I agree with). There is a lot of misplaced liberalism that is really paternalism. I am thinking of the board member who wants to go out and educate black parents on parenting. She means well - but is insulting that she thinks she knows better. So, the question for me is. . . is my liberalism misplaced or am I being paternalistic? I think education, to some extent, is inherently paternalistic as it is "pedantic." I am "delivering instruction." The notion of education is to empower kids to become good decision makers -- so its ultimate goal of education is to destroy paternalism... Ha, the great irony of education. (Which is why life is probably the best educator). So, as any teacher - I think I am caught in that irony. But I don't want to "save" or "teach" my black students anything different than I want for my white students. I think the pathway to enlightenment is an individual -- not even communal (I am not a utilitarian.)(despite the fact that education is set up entirely as a utilitarian endeavor). I am also interested in educating the whole child - I don't care if they like the book if they don't like themselves or life. (One can make a serious argument that I cannot education black boys for this reason - how can I teach them to like themselves . . . but I don't buy that either. People are people. Love, loss, sadness, grief, pain... we all experience this -- we all experience it in different ways -- but happiness and pain is universal and relative.
I do not see it as different for Jews, for blacks, for girls or for boys. I think that content and methodology must be flexible and appropriate for each and every audience -- when HPHS teaches all books with no female characters, when any school teaches eurocentric history, whatever. . . all instruction must be tailored to inspire the particular audience sitting in front of me. I cannot use only football analogies in an all-girl classroom and I cannot use dead white men as the only representations of literature. So, I don't think I am paternalistic. Other than the institutional irony of "teaching."
Am I paternalistic because I think I'm good at teaching black boys? I don't think I'm better than black teachers PER SE. I think I am a great teacher. There are teachers who are better than me (white, black, male and female). There are teachers who are worse than me (black, white, male and female). Can I teach black boys better than black men? Some. There are some black male teachers who can kick my butt teaching writing and there are some black male teachers who can kick my butt teaching the whole black child. But there are some really crappy teachers out there -- black men included. So, statistically speaking -- couldn't make an argument. I don't think we can measure or predict successful teachers in this kind of way.
What am I missing -- what else does it mean to be paternalistic??? Is my culture or way of life better?? It is relative and it depends and how can I say blue is better than white? Okay. . . I'm entering the slippery slope of relativism. But I believe in cafeteria living -- I'll take some of this, leave some of this... education's job to help us learn to make good choice for what is best for us. WHAT AM I MISSING????
Now.. my misplaced liberalism.... Yes. It is at times misplaced. For sure. I want to save the world from unhappiness. I want easy fixes - even though I know they don't exist. I can only see my misplacement after-the-fact though. Right, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. More later. Please respond Big D
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