Convocation '08

On the day after Barack Obama officially received the appointment at the DNC, another proud and poised African-American male began a long journey toward anticipated greatness. Our new superintendent of schools follows a past leader who was inefficient and had very low approval ratings amoung educators and citizens of the city. I watched our previous superintendent silence a room of proud parents and teachers last year as he commented on how 'people' say that Puerto Rican and African-American students can not achieve excellence in school, but 'we' have proved them wrong. The statement was completely out of place in the celebration of students and left a sour taste in my mouth.

This morning we all gathered in the largest arena in the city, all 5000 or so teachers and paraprofessionals. We heard our new first in command's story and I do believe that many of us were won over. Like many of our students he grew up in an impoverished city, lived on welfare, and was raised by a single mom. His success is what we hope for in our students' futures, to rise up out of the drudges of the city toward excellence, and then to use their skills to make positive change in either the community they grew up in or in similar communities.

As is often the case, some of my subtle observations at the convocation seemed to put a bit of a damper on things. Sometimes it's the little things that tell a story of the dirty truths that are the reality of many situations. There is one specific individual who is a colleague of mine who I noticed shaking her head and sighing in disapproval at the mentioning of the march on Washington by African Americans in the 60s during the civil rights movement. Along with the overarching themes of religion and militarism that ran rampant at the pseudo pep rally, this really and truly overshadowed everything else and made me face the harsh reality that not everyone has a clear vision. Not everyone is in this for the reasons that I see as being righteous. I can see where a white teacher might feel uncomfortable when race is brought up at such an event. Some people think that bringing it up is unecessary - that it isn't something they think about regularly. For a white person, it is easy to say that race isn't important, because our race is not something we are constantly judged by, grouped by, and stereotyped by. It is easy to say that race doesn't matter when you are in the spot of the majority group that defines itself by normalcy. In a district where the majority of the teachers are not of the same race or ethnicity of the students population, race NEEDS to be discussed and attitudes need to change. The school system mirrors our society - the white population as those in charge and those with power, and the people of color in a more subservient and marginalized position. I do not want my students to grow up wondering why all of their teachers are white and subconsciously succumbing to to the status quo in which people of color are constantly being shown as inferior, and in which "white" is the definition of normalcy in America, when neither of those are in fact the truth.