Want Great Life Lessons? Pay Attention to Students

‘White Privilege’

The most important lessons I’ve learned from my students are also some of the most difficult lessons I’ve learned. Many of my high school students are young men of color. Through the years I have worked as an educator at this school, I thought I knew best how to teach them, connect with them, and help them. Recently, in light of George Floyd’s murder, the Black Lives Matter movement, and experiences with my students in the classroom, I have had to reevaluate my assumptions, take a hard look at my beliefs, and make changes to my instruction.

One conversation several years ago stands out. On this given day, I had chosen an extra reading assignment for students to work on if they finished the class activity early. Two young men of color finished their activity, and I gave them the assignment: a Scholastic Action article on Harriet Tubman. They reacted strongly saying they didn’t want to do the assignment. In talking to them some more, they shared that they were offended by the topic of the article. They did not understand why they had to read this. They did not want to be reminded constantly of the history of slavery. They did not like the implication that this is what teachers thought of when they saw them. Being related to former slaves is not how they were comfortable identifying themselves. They also shared that they had been uncomfortable reading novels dealing with gun violence and police brutality, things that they felt were not related to their life or the way they saw themselves and their experiences.

I was forced, in light of the books I was reading at the time and current events around racial injustice, to confront my white privilege and my presumptions about my students of color and their lived experience. It opened my eyes to the idea that their self-images were complicated and were a result of an intersectionality of diverse identities. They were showing me that their identity as a person of color was not what I had assumed. It challenged my preconceptions and made me take a hard look at my beliefs.

Many of these experiences, big and little, over the years have allowed me to reflect on my role as a white female teacher in a school with a population made up predominantly of students of color. It has pushed me to make changes in my instruction. I began to have students vote as a class on the books that they wanted to read, not assuming I knew what they would like to read. I realized, not surprisingly, that not all young people want to read about violence or trauma.

More importantly, these experiences have changed me as a person. I continue to thank those students for their honesty and bravery. They have helped me on my path of personal growth. They have allowed me to reflect on my role, challenge my identity and my privilege. I had been looking at their lives through my own lens and not actually hearing them.

By far, these are the greatest lessons my students have taught me no matter how hard it is to admit. I am appreciative to them and thank them for these opportunities to grow as an educator and a person.