#4: Gender and Sexual Orientation

A common issue when it comes to the role of gender in the classroom is gender presence in certain fields--such as women in math and science. While gender inequality is not obviously a prevalent issue in America today, severely outnumbered environments can produce such an atmosphere. As Dr. Sally Hicks, a physics professor at the University of Dallas, has explained to female students, gender is certainly still a component when choosing grad schools because not all schools are welcoming to women in the field. Along the same lines, men can receive negative feedback for choosing fields where they are not commonly thought to belong. The difference is that women tend to have to fight to prove that they are capable, that they are smart enough and can handle the jobs men can while men receive negative feedback for choosing fields that seem below them as "women's work". If a man says he wants to be a nurse, people think

, "Why not a doctor?". If a woman says she wants to be a doctor, people think, "Is she smart enough to be my doctor?" While society has come a long way in gender expectations, there are still certain stigmas that must be dealt with.

Homosexuality is a continually changing issue in America. While we have come great lengths since Harvey Milk and there are laws protecting the rights of gays, there are still many societal issues. The degree to which they can be managed is a much more difficult issue-- consider neo-nazis. Most people in America don't argue against gays and lesbians having jobs or civil unions, but when the questions of adoption and marriage arise another debate rises altogether. While it seems to many that gay parents are better than no parents and thus there should not be a prejudice against gays adopting, there are still many who argue that it is not proper for the formation of a child to be raised in such an environment. Even more of an issue is that of gay marriage, as many believe that the sanctity of marriage should be protected and that gays have the rights to civil unions already. These issues are all important to keep in mind in the classroom, to be sensitive to all views and be careful not to ostracize students in any way. As teachers, we may not always know if a child in the room is being raised by two lesbian mothers so it is important to always teach children to be accepting of people with different views.

3: Rich kid, Poor kid

When discussing socioeconomic classes and their influence in the classroom, it is natural to talk about the lower classes. The children from home below the poverty line, the ones who may not eat a meal other than their free lunch at school, the ones who do not have regular access to showers, the ones who have to work under the table to help their families make ends meet. This is understandable given that teachers tend to choose the profession in order to help those less fortunate or help kids attain opportunities they did not think would ever be possible, but avoiding prejudice based on socioeconomic status is not only a matter of how to treat the lower classes. Children from upper class families are not in any way immune to social prejudices, especially in classrooms, and it is equally unfair to make assumptions about the homeless children in one's classroom and upper class children.

Chinn discusses the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which allows homeless children to attend school regardless of circumstances beyond their control. However, in California today, homeless children are turned away from public schools because they do not have proof of vaccinations. This makes sense for the well-being of the majority of the children, but it forces schools like the Mustard Seed School of Sacramento to pick up where the system has fallen short and educate these children. A child should not be deprived of the same educational opportunities afforded by our government to all citizens due to the circumstances of his/her family, but that is the reality of the situation. When such children are able to come into a mainstream classroom, they need to learn lessons they might not get anywhere else-- social skills, morals, hygiene. We should be aware as teachers of the homeless and lower class children when we prepare our students for the world (as some are seeing a much harsher world as a child than we ever have) for they can break the cycle if we do our jobs right.

While avoiding discrimination based off socioeconomic status, it is also important to not judge the children coming from upper class homes. The majority of the population coming from the middle class brings the casting out of all students who do not fit into that category, including the upper class students. It is typically assumed that life is always easy for the rich--if that were the case, the drug overdose rate in Hollywood would not be what it is. It's like another culture only observed through television shows and magazine articles, so people assume that the wealthy always sit in their mansions and spoil their children and buy away all their worries. In reality, the majority of the wealthy non-celebrities in America keep modest appearances. They do not tend to lead extravagant lives and pour money over their children. The majority of them worked a great deal to get to that point, so they want to instill that same work ethic and determination into their children by not giving them every thing they want without working for it. Many times, these children will become aware of the bitterness or prejudice other students may have toward upper class individuals and will try to hide their families' wealth from their peers. Growing up with doctors for parents, the children in my family all tried to play down the fact we had any money as much as possible because being middle class was how to fit in. Other students or teachers would assume that if our parents had money, that meant things were just easier for us. In reality, our parents grew up extremely poor, my mother immigrating from Cuba and being raised on food stamps. Our parents taught us from an early age that nothing matters more than education and hard work; that's how they got where they did and it would be the way we would get where we wanted to be. To say things like the wealthy value their food for its presentation or that legacies are their main possessions is laughable, as well as rather offensive. It is completely out of line to make judgements about anyone's priorities in life or their values based off their class, especially when those judgements are made by outside classes rather than asking the individuals themselves.

In our classrooms, it is important to give all students an environment where they can feel safe and welcome in every way. Whether those students be lower class, upper class, black, Jewish, etc., they should all have a classroom to learn and thrive in. The environment of the classroom starts with the teacher and it is thus vital that the teacher not bring their prior conceptions of any group into the room.

2: It's not all black and white.

Of all the countries for racism to be an issue, it seems rather ironic for it to be so present in America. With the native population being such a minority, it would seem automatic for all ethnic groups to treat each other as equals with equal rights to be here. Instead, we are no more immune to the dangers of racism than countries of nearly homogenous populations. There may be pockets of different concentrations or severities of judgement, but the continuation of lawsuits and hate crimes show that it is still a very widespread issue. Whether it be assuming a hispanic child is less intelligent because they have an accent, or a black student won't go to college because she's black, or even that your Korean friend down the street must be good at ping pong, racism largely boils down to presuming something about an individual simply based on their race.

The ultimate goal is for racism to be no more than a history lesson coinciding with events such as the holocaust or the Civil War. Such ignorance too soon, however, can be dangerous. It is a testament to the difficulty of thinking from someone else's point of view when a black student can sit in the same classroom as a white student who does not understand the idea of racism in 1960's Mississippi. It should be part of the purpose of the classroom to erase the option of racism from the mind's of the children, but it is still necessary to teach our students of the atrocities that have taken place. As it is said, if we do not learn from our mistakes, we are bound to repeat them. In teaching our students such lessons, it is also important to keep from allowing ourselves and our students to judge to oppressive race, else we commit a similar crime. Clearly, negative feelings toward Nazi Germany is not the same as instituting the holocaust, but they are rooted in the same soil. Along the same lines, the German boy in the third row of my classroom should not feel attacked any more than the Jewish boy sitting next to him. It is our duty to not only repair damage that has been done, but to prevent any future possibilities of racism.

"Color blindness", as discussed by Gollnick and Chinn, is how teachers should approach the expectations of the students in a classroom. There should be certain marks of achievement that we set for all of our students and it is the job of the teacher, possibly requiring the assistance of outside tutoring, to do what is necessary for each student to meet those achievements. However, color blindness with test scores and comprehension of material is not the same as color blindness with respect to culture. Ignoring cultural differences in the classroom means sending students into the world with no concept of other ethnic groups doing things in other ways. Such behavior does not eliminate racism--it simply prolongs it. Rather than a classroom that is "color blind", students should realize that they are all unique and interesting and have the opportunity at school to learn about one another. If we are to erase racism from our classrooms, ignoring it is not the solution--embracing it is. As teachers, it is our responsibility to show our classes that every student can achieve their goals and can accomplish the tasks of the classroom. To eliminate racism, we must attack the root-- the idea that one race is incapable of performing the same tasks as another.

Entry 1: Foundations

In America, it is easy to say that any environment is by nature accepting and open because that is the foundation of the nation, but it is simply not the case. It is important as teachers to never take for granted that any child automatically feels included while not ostracizing them further by pointing out their differences. Further, it is necessary to be aware of one's own views and experiences in order to use them beneficially to include all the students in the classroom. By encouraging the expression of everyone's background--religiously, ethnically, and overall culturally-- and allowing the classroom to be a proper venue of education in those cultural backgrounds, the walls of discrimination are brought down and the students can come to realize that everyone has a different story and they are all worth sharing.

In my experiences, I have come to realize the reality of racism in the modern world that I did not understand as a child. I was raised in the mountains of North Carolina, an area defined very much by the previous slave movement in America. There are two sides very much represented--those who treat white people the same as everyone else and those who still don't even consider black people to be the same level of humanity as white people. As a kid, I was very much brought up in the former group. My mother immigrated from Cuba, so hispanics were not only as good as caucasians, but just as much our people as caucasians (despite our being Spanish decent, and thus light-skinned, as well as completely brought up in the American way). At the same rate, the idea of black people or asians being any different was never even considered. We weren't taught to not be racist; we simply didn't have the option. In my high school, we had a number of Korean exchange students whom we all clung to. We wanted to learn about their culture as much as they wanted to learn ours. We were at a private school where the families involved were well-educated and many had moved into the area. Racism was still not a question. It was not until I was living in Rome on my semester abroad that I witnessed the degrees of racism in the world today before my eyes. A group of my friends and I had decided to go to a small town near where we were living in the outskirts of Rome. Five of us were standing at a bus stop talking when an elderly Italian woman approached us. One of my friends and I were eager to speak with her to improve our Italian, while the other three watched our conversation. She began to ask how we had come to meet each other and we were confused as to why she would not assume that we knew each other before coming to this bus stop. To us, we were all clearly American and naturally traveling together. When we explained our situation, she pointed to me and another friend, baffled that we could be American because we have red-ish hair. The blonde haired guy was obviously American to her, as well as the boy with dark brown hair, but red hair cannot be a feature on Americans. We explained that Americans have all different colors of hair and she gradually accepted that we could be American, but then she pointed to our last friend and pointed to her cheek and said that she could not possibly be American because her skin is black. We tried to explain to her that she is just as American as we are, but the woman simply refused to believe it. We got on our bus amazed at the experience we had just had. To us, we all look equally American, but to this Italian woman that was not possible. We realized that our country is quite different than most others.

Another experience on our semester abroad was when the same black girl and I were traveling to Ireland on break. We got to the customs gate and I went first. Holding my U.S. passport and with a name as Irish as it gets, Kathleen Marie Moore, I was nearly as comfortable approaching their customs officer as an American customs officer. One look at my passport, my freckles and red-ish hair and I was passed right through without a pause. Then my friend approached the same officer with her U.S. passport. After 5 or 6 extremely detailed questions about the exact address she would be staying at and who she knew in Ireland, she pointed at me and said, "I don't know; she has our travel information." I walked over to the counter and asked what he needed to know and he simply asked if she was with me before stamping her passport to let her into Ireland. It's the kind of treatment that is illegal in America and I had never actually witnessed as a white girl. As we walked into Ireland, I was saying how ridiculous it was and Ashlea was almost unphased, just annoyed it had happened once again. We both carried American passports. We are both well-spoken and well-educated. Yet, one of us was considered trust-worthy while the other considered a threat.

The question at this point for teachers in America is how to include everyone in the room equally, embracing all their similarities as well as all their differences. It seems that the most important and natural thing to do, though it is not always exercised in the classroom, is to treat all our students the same. Changing standards for the black kids is like telling them that they can't do what everyone else can, so there are different expectations for them. It's the same way with girls verses boys or any other difference that teachers will try to counteract for. Affirmative Action is a good concept in a situation where one group is being excluded from an equal opportunity because they are different, but the standards should not be any different. Blind acceptance is much more multicultural because all ethnicities get a fair chance at a merit-based position based on their merit. A Korean girl who out-scores every black boy applicant should be granted the position rather than giving those spots to other people because the Korean demographic has already been filled. If justice is blind, that should be essential in our classrooms.