This February, students across the country celebrate Black History Month. They read books by black authors, wrote research papers on civil rights activists, memorized Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech and watched videos about the Underground Railroad. And as they learn about the struggle of the past, they’ll begin to recognize it in their own present — when a cashier squints suspiciously when they walk into a store, when they turn on the news and see another person who looks like them lose his life to senseless violence. These lessons are anything but history.
I see the way my students internalize the negative stereotypes they hear about people who look like them. Over the years I’ve heard kids say, “I can’t do that,” or “I’m not supposed to do that,” about an opportunity or possibility that they didn’t think was accessible to them. In fact, I heard it so much that as a teacher, I eventually banned the word ‘can’t’ from my classroom. Now, as a principal, I strive to create a school culture that affirms our kids every day. When it comes to great opportunities and possibilities, my students can.
Of course, the barriers for low-income students of color are real and significant. In light of them, we have no time to waste. This school year marked the first in which the majority of public school students are minorities. Our generation has a responsibility to work to ensure that each and every one of them is moving through a system that affirms their identities, shows them they’re valued, and allows them access to the opportunities they have been denied for far too long.
While the “Whites Only” signs of the 1960s have come down, the reality of separate and unequal endures. Alongside glaring gaps in educational, employment and economic opportunity, people of color in this nation face a variety of subtler, no less damaging assumptions. A successful black lawyer hears whispers of affirmative action. A young black boy on a corner is seen as “lurking,” while his white peers “hang out.” A black college student is asked to give “the black perspective” to a seminar full of white students who are never asked to speak on behalf of their entire race.
I joined Teach For America because I know how privileged I was. Growing up, I got a wonderful education in gifted classes that taught me how to think critically and set me up for success. But I also reject the premise of public education as privilege. I want every child, regardless of race, class or arbitrary “gifted” label, to have a school experience that allows him to build the toolkit he needs to create a fulfilling future. That is the power and promise of education, and our kids deserve nothing less.
We have a long way to go as a country before we truly achieve justice for all. To fix the systemic oppression that has created the gross inequality of the present will take the hard, dedicated work of countless leaders and change-makers – many of whom have experienced it first-hand, others who bear witness to it from further away. We must work toward these long-term changes as well as the immediate, urgent opportunities to change the way our students view themselves and their futures.
As teachers, we can play a central role in this. Every day, we can remind our kids that their thoughts, ideas, identities and opinions are important. We can share our own stories so that when our kids look to the front of the room, they see a little bit of themselves reflected back. We can remind them that they matter, that they always have and that they always will.
Donique Nobles is a 2006 alum of Ole Miss and Teach For America-Memphis. She is the principal at Freedom Prep Academy.
