I interviewed a retired teacher (Jane Eddings) about the changes in education because of the Civil Rights movement. She told me that most of the legal aspects were already enforced and supported when she started teaching. More changes came later during her teaching with gender and disability equity. I asked her if she witnessed any of the changes. She told me that teachers and administrators went through lots of training to recognize discrimination. There was enforcement that came later. She also told me that students that had disabilities were segregated from the rest of the school. There were very few female teachers and administrators and none that she could remember that had disabilities.
Jane worked at Sprague High School for her career. She was there shortly after the school opened in the 70s.
It must have been difficult to be 1 of the few female teachers in the school and to go through major training on discrimination. Especially, when there is a possibility that you may have been discriminated against yourself. She never told me if she was ever discriminated against as being a female teacher. The training had to have opened the eyes of everyone that took the training.
Do you think the training was effective with the teachers? Or did their own personal views override the training? I noticed watching video that it seemed views of citizens remained after the legal changes. Teaching at Sprague, I wonder how many students of color were at the school during the 1970s, since only 20 students are enrolled during the 2009-10 school year, making up 1.1% of the school's population. Obviously the density of African-American students was more dense in the South than the Northwest. So, I think you are right in there was a more visible discrimination with females and disabled students. Although, like has been brought up in the past, I wonder if the training/workshops originally did more harm than good when these "labels" first materialized, since you described disabled students were segregated. The segregation was probably thought to benefit the students to provide more specific instruction. It seems that when trying to improve a situation, regardless of the issue, time is key with working out the kinks to get to the eventual improvement, with your example this seems to be the case at Sprague as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your interview.
Elizabeth, do you think students still feel discrimination at your school in spite of the training of teachers? Melinda makes some interesting points about labels. Do you feel you have "labels" in your mind? Is there ever a time in which segregation of students based on some characteristic is justified? That the positives outweigh the negatives? Interesting that your thoughts focus on the teachers experience and potential discrimination there, particularly with women. I think we often focus on students, but that teachers may feel discrimination as well.
ReplyDeleteI never really felt like I had a school. At least not on the permanent bases. In all of the schools that I have been to no one has ever told me about discrimination going on in the school. I have never heard other students talking. I don't remember seeing students being discriminated against. In school, I was the kid saying hello to everyone and hitting the person in the arm for saying racial remarks.
ReplyDeleteIn my volunteer work at Sprague, I have never seen or heard of any students being discriminated against. They talk freely about the teaches they like and hate. Most of the things that students like/dislike about the teachers were attitude and work load.
I honestly don't know if I discriminate against students unintentionally. I try not to pass judgement until I get to know a person. Any "labels" that come into my mind is based off of observation. At West, in one of the Physical Science classes there are 2 boys that have a certain attitude about them. I label them as characters. I just know that when I teach that class, I may have to keep them a part and work a bit harder to keep them on task. They are not bad and from what I have witnessed, they do their work.
The only time that I can think of a time to segregate students, would be if it was for safety of the whole. This would be for example 2 major rival gangs and there was no way to keep them from fighting.
I wonder what it would have been like to go through the discrimination training early on. I am sure that it was not very well received by the school teachers. It is so interesting to me that students with disabilities were completely segregated in the schools. I guess they thought that if they didnt understand something or someone that they should isolate it and figure it out first. I wonder if they thought students with disabilities were dangerous or could harm the education of "normal" students.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I am very interested in is this teachers perspective as a woman teaching in the 70s and 80s. I bet that was a hard time for women and equality, especially in a school of mostly men teachers and administrators. I wish she would have felt led to share more about her personal experiences.