Article: Mixed students in the classroom
CVK
Check out a great new article Jen just wrote with advice for teachers with mixed students in their classes:
What I am suggesting is that teachers acknowledge mixed identity in their classrooms. I am not suggesting that you give mixed students special treatment. I am also not recommending that you go overboard by trying to pinpoint all of the mixed students in your class so that you can rush to talk to all of them about how it is to be mixed. Not only will you scare a few by this method, but you are also bound to make a mistake. There will be some students who are mixed and don’t identify as mixed, but rather by just one of their ethnicities. There could be another student you think is mixed but isn’t, and yet another who you are sure is mono-racial but who shows up at Parent-Teacher night withparents of two different ethnicities . Don’t be shocked. Don’t be surprised. Never make assumptions. Family members don’t always come in one hue. We need to be mindful of the diversity in our classrooms in a thoughtful and conscious way.
Jen wrote:
I can relate to this confusion. When I was in high school, the front office forced me to indicate whether I was Asian or Caucasian. I left that part of the form blank on purpose because most racial identify forms force you to indicate one or the other. But I refuse to acknowledge just one side of my ethnicity. I am as much a Filipino as I am an American. It’s about time the public school system and much of the general population recognize that.
Posted 06 Sep 2005 at 1:11 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:
in college, I put Other: biracial on forms. Mysteriously, every other semester or so, I was in the main office asking them to change it BACK to Other: biracial. One semester it was black, the next it was white. It was supposedly a computer error… really? I suspect someone changed it depending on what demographic they wanted to show was on campus. Seems petty, until you realize that the school is about 90% white in the undergraduate and had about 250 people in my graduating class (not counting grad school or continuing ed or part timers)- so shifting a few students here or there would really matter.
Posted 06 Sep 2005 at 1:38 pm ¶
cici wrote:
yes i can relate i realte to one of my ethnicities because one of my parents abandoned the family. i dont know them, i’m not in contact with them , i don’t look like them. and that parent does not want me. yeah yeah i know that you cant change who you are but i feel no connection to my other side.
Posted 18 Sep 2005 at 8:37 pm ¶