The Ethnic Steroid

In the book, "A White Teacher Talks About Race", author Julie Landsman recounts a day in the life of a middleclass teacher living in St. Paul, Minnesota. She works in a school that primarily deals with "at-risk" students. She states that "the challenge [in this type of environment] is dealing with changing student attitude." Alright, not ground-breaking by any stretch of the imagination, but she's refering to ethnicity and education. Throughout the book, she restates comments from her students, and the predominant viewpoint is that African-American, Vietnamese, and Latino students don't want to learn too much because they don't want to "give in" to the "white man's world" and "become a white man" themselves. Landsman's solution is to integrate more ethnicity into the classroom, building a theory that infusing more race and culture into the classroom will help students become more engaged and give them something tangible to relate to. While this may be a valid point, I don't feel it's the solution. Landsman is only addressing half of the problem. What she fails to recognize is the socio-economic background of many of these kids. This is a problem that spreads well beyond the realm of education and the classroom. If you look at the numbers, the majority of the poverty-class in America is made up of non-whites. Not surprising if you consider the historical background of African-Americans and the modern day problem of illegal immigration. However, despite these factors, there are more opportunities for people of color these days than there ever has been before. Landsman may indeed be speaking the truth when she claims that students don't want to learn because they don't want to become "white", but the solution isn't to inject education with tons of ethnic-friendly material. Perhaps we need more ethnicity in the classroom (good luck trying to find any colored authors of note pre-20th century), but this won't solve the problem of students not wanting to gain an education for fear of being assimilated into the "white man's world". Should the question not be asked: how much of this problem is a lack of ethnicity representation in society, and how much of it is just an excuse for the colored person? In all seriousness, if students in St. Paul are predominantly taking a stance against education for a silly reason such as fear for becoming "white", how much of that is true, and how much of that is fear of escaping the poverty class and pursuing opportunity. In the book, one of Landsman's students tells her that he skips class a lot not because he dislikes school, but because if he gets an education, his 'homies in th' hood will beat [him] down for bein' a white mama's boy'. This doesn't sound like a lack of ethnicity in the classroom, in fact, injecting a Bonds-like amount of ethnicity in this situation won't help the problem at all. To me, the culture of the poverty-class has become a brotherhood of sorts where if one pursues a better life, they're branded a turncoat. It seems to be a situation where a group of people (the poverty-class) wants to victimize themselves to see how much they can gain from government programs, employers, and even education. As a future teacher, it will become my job to challenge kids in these type of situations. To educate them about their situation and make them realize that they aren't losing their ethnic background or diversity by gaining an education, they're merely working to escape a poverty-stricken culture which others of similar skin color seem to identify with. Students shouldn't be ashamed nor afraid to gain an education. So as much effort and thought as you put into your ethnic-explosion-in-the-classroom plan Mrs. Landsman, I think you've overlooking a big part of the problem. Never underestimate the mentalities and self-fulfilling victimization of most people in the poverty-class, no matter if they're white, African-American, Latino, Chinese, or Smurf, being a victim becomes an excuse for not trying, and we need to help change the mindset of children who may be growing up in such conditions.