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Related: About this forumA boy told his teacher she can't understand him because she's white. Her response is on point.
http://www.upworthy.com/a-boy-told-his-teacher-she-cant-understand-him-because-shes-white-her-response-is-on-pointBut in her acceptance speech for her award, she made it clear that it took a turning point in her career before she really got it:
"Things changed for me the day when, during a classroom discussion, one of my kids bluntly told me I "couldn't understand because I was a white lady." I had to agree with him. I sat there and tried to speak openly about how I could never fully understand and went home and cried, because my children knew about white privilege before I did. The closest I could ever come was empathy."
Smith knew that just acknowledging her white privilege wasn't enoughShe wanted to move beyond just empathy and find a wato take some real action that would make a difference for her students.
She kept the same innovative and engaging teaching methods, but she totally revamped her curriculum to include works by people who looked like her students. She also carved out more time to discuss issues that her students were facing, such as xenophobia and racism.
And that effort? Absolutely worth it.
As she said in her acceptance speech:
"We studied the works of Sandra Cisneros, Pam Munoz Ryan, and Gary Soto, with the intertwined Spanish language and Latino culture so fluent and deep in the memories of my kids that I saw
ight in their eyes I had never seen before."
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A boy told his teacher she can't understand him because she's white. Her response is on point. (Original Post)
eridani
Dec 2015
OP
MisterP
(23,730 posts)1. while Rachel Dolezal says Latinas can't understandTM if they're too light
eridani
(51,907 posts)2. Check out Cherrie Moraga on growing up as a kight-skinned Latina
She was put in college prep courses, while her dark-skinned cousin Josie ("who could read, write and calculate rings around me" , got the vocational classes.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)3. sí--hay redes de peligro, redes de permiso, barras y entradas