A director of a bilingual preschool shared the story of
her first experiences with school with me.
Her story illustrates bias and prejudice. She was about 8 years old when she and her
family moved from Mexico to the United States.
She and her family only spoke Spanish.
She was placed in a classroom with children of the same age, where she
was the only person of color. She was
placed in a desk that was at the back of the room and apart from the other
children. She was given a coloring book
to keep her busy. There were no attempts
by the teacher or the other children to interact with her. Once a day for an hour, the ESL teacher came
to work with her.
This scenario demonstrates how, as a child, this woman was
marginalized. Her place in the classroom
and the lack of interaction with the other children and teacher were based on
stereotypes and the perceptions of the teacher and children. She was not given the same attention or
opportunity to learn that the other children.
She was made to feel invisible because she of her ethnicity, language,
appearance and culture. I would guess that this child had feelings
much like Taylor (2011) who states “And so I remember that there were pieces of
feeling sort of left out or different through circumstances that weren’t my own
or things that I hadn’t caused anyway”.
This situation made me feel angry with the teacher for
treating this child in such an unjust manner and with the school for letting
this kind of thing occur. It also made me feel sad for the child who had to
endure a year of this kind of treatment.
The most obvious changes that could have turned this incident into an
opportunity would have been the use of strategies for working with English
Language Learners and cultural sensitivity training for the staff. Even without
these changes, there are a number of steps that could have turned this
situation into one with greater equity.
Just allowing the child to sit with rather than away from the class
would have been a way to help the child be an equal partner in the
classroom. Attempts by the teacher to interact
with the child would have also made her visible rather than invisible and would
have served as a model for the children in the classroom. Giving the child access to the same learning
materials as the other children would have also resulted in greater equity
between the child and the other students on the classroom.
Reference
Laureate
Education, Inc. (Producer), (2011). In her own
voice: Nadiyah Taylor. [Video
program]. Baltimore, MD.
That is so sad to me to hear that a teacher treated a student like that. I cannot imagine treating a child like that based on their race or culture. Children experience biases and prejudice comments based on their family culture all the time around the world, but what they do not know at the time, is that those children remember those encounters for the rest of their lives. Some aspect of that experience she is going to carry with her forever. On some level it will shape the woman she will become as she gets older. As an early childhood professional we should be encouraging children and not putting them down. Great post.
ReplyDeleteI can only imagine how she felt. Moving and starting in a new school where you don't know anyone is scary enough but to be isolated makes it worse. It is wonderful that she over came that and became successful. Hopefully she is using her experience and ensure that all children are treated fairly, included and participate in all activities.
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteThis is a terrible situation. No child should go through this at all. I feel that the teacher should of made some effor in attempt to develop some type of appropriate relationship with her. If i were put in that situation, I would break out a translator kit to at least make an attempt to connect to the child and make sure that she was "ok" and comfortable in the classroom. As being an educator I feel that it is my duty to at least try to connect with students in my classroom. Interesting Post!
~Adrea Reavis