{"id":23188,"date":"2015-01-19T10:04:25","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T15:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=23188"},"modified":"2015-01-19T10:04:25","modified_gmt":"2015-01-19T15:04:25","slug":"essay-how-to-teach-brown-v-board-to-a-class-of-all-black-students-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2015\/01\/19\/essay-how-to-teach-brown-v-board-to-a-class-of-all-black-students-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Essay: How To Teach Brown V. Board To A Class Of All Black Students"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>

zrfraileyphotography \/ Flickr<\/p>

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C.<\/p><\/div>\n

Editor’s note: As schools around the country celebrate the Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday holiday, we’re reposting this essay from former South Florida teacher Jeremy Glazer about race in education.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a question: <\/b>How do you teach a class of all black students in an all black school that Brown v. Board of Education<\/i> ended segregation decades ago?<\/p>\n

That isn\u2019t a hypothetical question, but one I remember clearly asking myself. I was teaching American History for the first time in one of our nation\u2019s many embarrassingly homogeneous schools. I could not, with a straight face, teach my students that segregation had ended.\u00a0 They\u2019d think that either they or I didn\u2019t know what the word segregation meant.\u00a0 \u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

But, as a beginning teacher, I was afraid of telling too much truth.\u00a0 Brown<\/i>\u2019s legacy is not a hopeful story about law, or government, or progress, and it seemed like a particularly cruel lesson in power, racism, and injustice.\u00a0 I wanted to be both honest and gentle to my students and probably failed at both.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

I bumbled my way through that particular year in that particular school, but the question of segregation comes up again and again for me.\u00a0 Brown<\/i> has always been in the background, whatever my students look like.<\/p>\n

And they\u2019ve looked very different.\u00a0 I have been privileged to teach in a wide range of environments\u2014city schools, suburban schools, public schools, and private\u2014and I\u2019ve worked with a wide range of students.\u00a0 In my travels I have found that mixed schools are exceedingly rare.\u00a0 That\u2019s unfortunate because if we are ever going to be a truly multicultural, tolerant society, we need to start by sitting next to each other.<\/p>\n

Related<\/h4>
Posts<\/h5>