White inner-city teacher?

Question

I am strongly considering becoming a teacher, and one of the places that comes to mind is the inner-city. I figured I want to live in the city, so this might be a place to teach. However, I've seen questions on here about how people are tired of movies with white teachers coming in and saving all the poor black kids and this leads me to some questions. In inner-city schools, how important is race? How do students(African American) respond to white teachers? I figure that each individual differs, but is there anyone on here that has experience with this? I know there are a lot of factors such as individual students/teachers/teaching methods, but I'm more talking about just ingeneral.

Answer 1

I've worked for 21 years with inner-city teachers, mostly white.

In ALL schools, race is not the issue, it is social class, or socio-economic status (SES). (See Noam Chomsky's comment about "The unmentionable five-letter word" in *The Restless Few and the Prosperous Many*!!) That is, if a child has a doctor father & a lawyer mother, it doesn't matter what is the child's race!!

African-American students respond well to teachers of any ethnic group who offer: 1) Respect for them as individuals, 2) Fairness to all students in the class, 3) Teaching from their starting point but with high expectations & standards, never assuming someone is too "dumb" to learn the subject, 4) Offering extra help if needed, 5) Never humiliating anyone in the class, either alone or in front of peers.

This is true of all ages, K-12, in my experience. You will meet some racist parents (against you) and some parents who will accuse you of racism at the drop of a hat, but usually the students recognize respect when they see (and feel) it.

Answer 2

I'm a retired white teacher who taught mostly black students for 27 years. I also taught for awhile in a white suburban middle class district, and I can tell you from experience, there is a MAJOR DIFFERENCE between these types of schools. But that's not your question. As to your question, I would say, in general, that as soon as the students get used to you, and realize that you are there for them everyday, and, VERY IMPORTANTLY, treat everybody the SAME, then race is only a problem with a very few individuals who are basically black and rascists. You'll probably have more problems from the PARENTS than from the students themselves, and they tend to be more racist than the students themselves. There are certain key words and phrases you must learn NOT to say, even though you may hear them say these words all the time, you are not allowed to (as you are white). For example, don't say "you people..."; don't use a "black list", etc. And of course, NEVER use the N word, they'll fire you over that (or kill you). And remember, they're gonna "test yah" on the race question, so be careful. You will find, after years of experience, that we're more alike than different, and if you treat your students like that, they will respect you and not let race become an issue.
But let's face the facts: It's a LOT harder to teach in an inner city school, because the black culture is so "up side down" and just plain BAD, and the students are usually many, many grade levels behind, and their behavior can border on insanity; well, I think if I had the chance to do it again, I would have been much happier in a white district. It's already a hard enough job, without throwing in all the difficulties of race, culture, and abnormal behavior.

Answer 3

Working With Inner City Youth

Answer 4

If you become a teacher, you have very little control over the race factors in your life. People are what they are. You record race on a form and have to get the numbers right. Unless the school district has quotas for teacher or student ratios, you won't deal with "race" much. Rap music is another matter.

Most public schools that I've dealt with have a large nonwhite population. I live in Texas, and Anglos are no longer the majority race. To me, "inner-city" means the parents are stuggling to make enough money to get by. There's a lot of that going around these days.

Culture is more or as much of a factor than race. It's what the kid lives in--the environment, what do parents do, are parents always at work, or drinking, or doing drugs--then they won't help the kid study. Many kids don't have the help at home that you'd think they would, and it's sad. Too many don't get medical help or love either. Teachers face a lot of trauma they can't do anything about.

I was once at a school that was 99.9% black. There was one Mexican kid. I felt very uncomfortable, and managed to get a transfer. Usually big inner-city schools hire you before they place you in a school.

If you believe you can help, you'll love teaching. Kids now need LOTS of help. I burned out, and have gone to writing. I'll leave a link to a story I wrote about my last year of teaching. Responsibility is overwhelming.

You might try being a substitute before you invest your life in teaching. College teaches lots of fine theories, but real life teaching is learned and done in a classroom with real live-wire kids with lots of problems and little interest in the "boring" stuff teacher have to say.

Kids need teachers who believe they can help. You can't save everyone from bad environments, but anything you can do to help kids get ahead in life--they will thank you for all your life--whether or not you know it.

Answer 5

I think the fact that you are concerned about and sensitive to this suggests that you would do very well. I do know some White teachers in inner city schools who have been very successful. They were people who cared deeply about their students and saw their humanity and potential before their race. I'm not suggesting that they ignored race - it is a reality in our society - but that they didn't start out with superior and arrogant attitudes. They worked WITH the community rather than working to change the community to their own vision of what it should be. And my experience has been that a lot of inner city schools have too few teachers who really care. If you do, you will be welcome, despite some initial skepticism.

Answer 6

I teach in an inner-city school for at-risk youth in the City of Providence. There are no typical answers to say how an African-American student will respond to a white teacher. It varies from kid to kid and teacher to teacher. I have had both good and bad experiences and there is no real way to answer that. I will tell you that many people use the race card for personal objectives. That too varies from kid to kid.

Good Luck!!!

Answer 7

I am a new teacher with little experience---
HOWEVER- I will relate the advise my SON gave me:
My son is a white teacher in a prodominately black school.
He teaches math. The students are not particularly interested.
He was brought in to replace a highly ineffectual teacher who screamed at the kids a lot.
His method:
They get out of hand, he just STOPS.
Eventually they notice.
He repeats these words almost every day:
"Look, I already graduated from High School and College, I have a job. You don't have to learn if you don't want to.
SOMEONE has to pick up the trash and SUPERSIZE my burgers. If you don't learn this stuff - That is where I will see you."
It took about a week or two - now only 2 students give him trouble.
At the beginning of class everyday he asks those two students:
"Do you want to supersize me -- or do you want to get a job that will buy you nice things and give you self-respect?"
Most of the time- even the troublemakers sit down and TRY to do the Math.
He has been congradulated on his handling of a very difficult group of kids.
Apparently they DON'T want to work at McDonalds the rest of their life
You just have to show them where it is your subject actually MATTERS in their life.

Answer 8

In general children are children. The only thing about working with inner city kids that may vary from other is kids ( and probably wont vary) is they are looking for someone who genuinely care about them and they especially look for fairness. If the children (elementary, middle or high school age) feel you care about them they will learn anything you have to offer. But if they feel you are just there for a check they will trash you big time. I worked at inner city schools for nine years...

Answer 9

Having grown up in a predominantly black neighborhood then later having gone to college, it's quite obvious why you see so few black students graduated from college, at least not if they're from the hood. College is designed for the civilized occidental mind. The truth is there is no such thing as American education that is geared for Black American culture, which is why most teachers are white:

Answer 10

It is not so much a racial issue as it is a poverty issue. Ruby Payne has authored some materials used in high poverty schools to help teachers understand poverty in order to teach effectively in a high poverty school.
One important point is to remember to respect the child and his environment.
Sometimes children in high poverty neighborhoods do not respond to teachers of same race who have not experienced poverty. Some parents do not respect teachers of the same race for the same reason.