Missing the Mark: The Miseducation of Urban Students

By Donna Burrell

Real life experiences of the disparities that students face in urban schools. Accounts of teachers and their inability to separate their personal biases, stereotypes and cultural differences while teaching the very students they despise.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9781387907533

Book preview

Students

Donna Burrell

2018

Copyright © 2018 by Donna Burrell

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

First Printing: 2018

ISBN 978-1-387-90753-3

DB Professional Solutions

Dedication

To the students who challenged me to be the best teacher I could for you, I thank all of you. The rapport and trust that was built with each class allowed me to get better, grow, and challenge myself to be more than just a teacher. The many days of closing the books and having real life discussions, the stories you shared, and the thanks that you all continue to give me today, in making you who you are now, makes me proud to have been in the room with you.

Thank you all.

Contents

Acknowledgements      ix

Introduction      1

Chapter 1: Personal Biases      3

Chapter 2: Cultural Differences      29

Chapter 3: Suburban vs. Urban      45

Chapter 4: For the Love of Money      59

Chapter 5: Choose Wisely      65

References      72

About the Author      73

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr. Nancy Conner, Dr. Janie Hatton, Ms. Gloria Erkins, Dr. Angela Ford, and Ms. Marisol Alvarado, the leaders who took me in under their wing as I entered and worked in the field of education. Also, the veteran teachers who took the time to guide me in the right direction. Your belief in my abilities and capabilities allowed me to be more than just a teacher; you entrusted me with program implementations, giving students lifelong lessons outside of the classroom, and to grow into the role of an educator versus just being a teacher.

Introduction

Being an educator is a tough job. It requires knowledge, skill, the want to help others, perseverance, stamina, a thick skin, understanding, compassion, and an open mind. This is just what I could come up with while writing this book. Those of you who have been before or are currently in front of young people and some on the post-secondary level, know that this is just skimming the top. Being an educator requires so much of yourself and your time than any other profession. It requires you to be flexible and able to adapt on a dime to any given situation.

One of the most difficult things that I have seen as I have worked in the field is being able to keep yourself out of the way. And with that, it can either make you or break you. I have seen many educators making decisions based on their wants, beliefs, values and not that of their students. There are times when it is necessary to insert these things when teaching but to operate only with a personal view point, is creating opportunities for disrespect, mayhem, and sometimes failure. Failure on the educator’s part which sets up students to fail as well.

Being open-minded and willing to learn from those you are educating is a must as learning goes both ways. If you aren’t willing to get to know your students, who they really are, not what you’ve seen on the television, what you’ve heard from others or even judging what you see in person, without all of the information at play, you are creating opportunities for failure.

Now don’t get me wrong, there were some awesome teachers working with urban students; know they were/are the exception and not the rule. I learned what not to do from what I saw and heard, and improved on what I was good at, to ensure that I was not what they were, a warm body in the classroom. Teaching is a craft and you have to work hard, continuously, to meet the needs of the students before you. Your success is dependent on how successful they are.

This book is not to bash anyone, but it is to show the disparities that urban students face and the teacher behaviors that exist and have gotten worse. I have learned from some of my colleagues, I was disgusted by some and became real friends with others. There has been and still is a major disconnect in the urban schools due to many of the factors that I point out in later chapters. And until there is a systemic overhaul of the public education system, as it was written in the 18th and 19th century during the period of intellectual enlightenment and the economic revolution, it is alienating many kids due to the mind sets related to social economic definitions (Robinson, K). Many students will continue to fall in the gaps. These gaps will cause them to get left behind or just plain ole give up.

Chapter 1: Personal Biases

As I began teaching in one of the largest high schools in the school district, central city and open to the district, the student population was 98 percent minority and the teaching staff was 81 percent Caucasian. Being the only Black in the Math department really made me start to pay attention to the many differences. The first department meeting several teachers stated what they wanted to teach, on the sole reason that they had been teaching that particular class previously. I remember making this statement with a very matter of fact tone, It’s not about what you want to teach, but what they need to learn. The stares were body piercing. I also stated, If you all would get yourselves out of the way, maybe the student’s would come first and left the room.

I knew going in that I was the odd man out and had no problem with it, as I had been in this predicament many times before in my Corporate America years. I didn’t mind it at all because I love a challenge. With that being said, I