high needs

my first term's classes consisted of a class on the theories of educational psychology, an introduction to teaching literacy, and teaching in high-needs context.

i have to say my favorite class was the last one - learning to teach in high-needs schools. the first 2 weeks of class were spent looking up the definitions of "white," "black," "yellow," "brown," and "red" in the dictionary. yes- different race colors. i was so bored and thinking to myself that this was such a waste of time. i was paying thousands of dollars, to be able to be taught how to look up colors in the dictionary? wonderful.
but we dug deep. the dictionary's definitions and words used to define these colors match closely to the stereotypes that these different races are given.
side note: white people are not white, as said defiantly by my colleague in class that day. "i call myself peach." and black people are not black, nor am i yellow.
we discussed how society ranks these colors, how the colors are ranked in the past, and how they should be ranked. also the color "red." honestly- i didn't really know what race it represented until i thought about it. it goes to show how invisible the American Indians are in today's world. how we don't think about them, how in actuality it was their land that was stolen from them.

we discussed how forms at the DMV, schools, and in public places, rank the colors when asking people to check what race they are. also, why are the only races on the forms that use their color version: white and black?

also, by the way, race does not exist. it is a social construct. you cannot tell what race someone is by looking at them. an African American woman can be from Lithuania, a Chinese man from Ethiopia.

this was a very touchy topic. race. my professor is Kenyan. she came into class the first day and said that yes, she knows and we know that she is black. get it out of the way. we are going to talk about race and this is a safe place, it is okay to talk about black stereotypes.

my class grew into a place of safe honesty. we all shared personal stories about our past education years, if we've ever been discriminated against. and honestly, the smallest things count. even just having  2 Hispanic men whistling at a blonde white girl - that's something. or in 8th grade, when a substitute teacher said to me and my math group in class out loud: "oh that's okay you have 3 people (while everyone had 4), you have Nicole. she's Asian."

it's the added pressure that comes from a stereotype. how we are expected to perform and sometimes feel like we have to fit into these stereotypes, BECAUSE THEY ARE THERE. we form these ideologies, these stereotypes, in our heads. we as a society make them and make them grow bigger.

we see a bad driver on the road, pass them by, shake our heads because we see he/she is Asian.
we see a homeless man on the road, notice he is black, and immediately lock our doors.

my professor told me a story. how she pulled over one time to give a homeless man some money. while she was releasing the money into his hand, her hands touched his and she saw tears in his eyes. she was immediately struck with emotion and asked why he was crying - he said he couldn't remember the last time someone had touched him. she took his hands and held his hands.

living in LA, i see all kinds of people. all kinds of ethnicities, people of different SES, all living together and working together. this program trains us on how to teach in urban areas, such as inner LA cities. no lie, it's scary. i do obey, succumb, and am victim to many stereotypes. we all do.