Blog 9: The DreamKeepers

The first chapter of this book was scary to take in as truth. I knew that segregation still existed, but not in the ways described here. And I certainly had no idea that places were considering re-segregating! But the arguments make sense. Things still aren't fair. African American male students spend more time getting in trouble than learning in their schools. There is a way out though: “only when individual classrooms are desegregated is there an improvement in the achievement levels of African American students.” (7). This strongly connects with the idea of multicultural education that we've been talking about in class. We need to have students of different backgrounds meeting and interacting in the actual classroom, and have them actually doing things together; just having it down on paper that a school is integrated means nothing.

The more I read about teachers struggling to teach in a diverse classroom, the more interesting it gets. A lot of current teachers feel as though they need to look at their classrooms and say, “Okay. My class is culturally and ethnically diverse. But I need to pretend it isn't. I need to pretend to not see the color differences.” Of course there are the teachers that aren't afraid to admit that they do see the color differences (like the teachers on pages 22-23) and tend to “feel sorry” for the black students that supposedly don't know how to behave or learn well enough. But what we're learning now is that yes, we do need to acknowledge that different races and cultures in our classrooms, and appreciate them for what they are, not feel bad for students because they are different. It connects to the expectations we have of all our students- we need to have high expectations if students are going to learn anything. No one should be left out of that. No one should be felt sorry for in this regard.

I liked the ideas in chapter four, about the classroom being a family. In the majority of cultures and families, children and students are always wanting to make their parents proud, or do something to impress their parents. Bringing that into the classroom, and having students become a family could be a life-changing thing. It probably wouldn't get rid of bullying, but it could significantly reduce it. Reducing bullying could make a world of a difference to those students who feel they are different because of their home-life: race, culture, etc.

This idea of culturally relevant teaching is so important, I think. It takes individual differences and cultural diversity into account, which are things generally overlooked in the classroom. We need to stop trying to make all students the same. We need to stop pretending that everyone learns the same way and that the same lessons will work year after year. Each new school year filled with new, diverse students is going to bring a new and exciting journey in our lives as teachers. We should be welcoming that. Keeping culture and society relevant to the classroom and our students will help to enhance their learning. So I go back to the beginning of my post. Is it a good idea for African American students to stay among their own in terms of education? I want to say no, but until we can desegregate our individual classrooms and make changes on a cultural level, we aren't going to see anything change.