Chapter 2 Summary Peter Kreten

I just finished reading Chapter 2 in See You When We Get There. Chapter 2 focuses on Liz Kirby, who is an African American studies teacher at Matheson Public High School in Chicago. Matheson is one of the premier Chicago Public School, however over the past two decades the school has experienced a phenomena known as white flight. The book states that: “By 2001, white student enrollment had shrunk to less than 5%.”

Even with this, the school is still one of the premier CPS schools in the entire city. Ms. Kirby is an advocate of social justice in the classroom and challenges her students to not just accept society the way it is. She wants her students to make society better and more just. She encourages debates on crucial “real world” matters such as credit card debit, slavery and its affect on today’s society, and what it means to be an African American.

The chapter describes a class in which the subject of religion is brought up and Ms. Kirby has an honest conversation with her students about Christianity’s impact on African-American culture, both positive and negative. She is fearless in the discussion as she mentions her own conflicting feelings on the subject matter. (Pages 33- 36)

It seems that no topic is off limits for discussion in her classroom. Ms. Kirby brings in articles about police brutality, why it is important to improve impoverished communities, and other real world topics. Her teaching methodology includes student accountability, no matter how small the infraction is. Assessment through various strategies, the text describes how she has her students write a poem in response to a topic they covered in class. She assigns readings outside of the history textbook, as she has her students read the autobiography of Malcolm X.

As I was reading the chapter, I found myself nodding my head in agreement with many of Liz Kirby’s philosophies on education. I loved how reading was such an important part of her class. You can tell that she really cares about her students and their success. There is a line at the end of the chapter where Ms. Kirby is states: “That’s why a philosophy of love and hope is so important. You have to believe that people and things can change for the better.”

This chapter does an excellent job of showcasing a dedicated and inspirational teacher. I found that many of Ms. Kirby’s teaching methods and philosophy are very similar to my own. This was a very insightful read. It shows me that even in the public school setting, you do not always have to teach to the test. You can have real moments of learning transpire. If you want them too, you have to make them happen.

Sorry y'all! I've been ill the last few days, but I promise I've been keeping up with the reading. As I predicted, the book is a quick read. I finished chapters 1 & 2 on Thursday night after the boys went to bed. I jotted down a few questions as I was reading.
First, (and I touched on this a little in my response to Meredith) how do you all feel about the race divide in teaching? Do you believe that white teachers cannot teach students of color as well as teachers of their own race? Have any of you had an experience with race in the classroom?
In Chapter 2 there were several quotes I pulled out. First, "Liz believed it was extremely important for African American kids to have teachers with whom they could connect culturally and historically" (21). I bristled at this a bit. At my previous district there weren't as many black teachers as there were white teachers. It wasn't by choice. None of our African American population chose to come back to their hometown to teach. In fact, I had been told by several of my students of color they weren't ever coming back once they got to college. Sure, it would be great if our black and Latino students had role models of the same color and culture as them, but we can't drag teachers kicking and screaming. And what makes me an ineffective teacher of students of color? Simply my skin color? Isn't that racist in a way? But then I turned the page and the teacher in question continued her observation. "Liz thought some people took the notion too far: first, in thinking that an African American teacher would be effective with black students simply by virtue  of her blackness; and second, in thinking that white teachers could never be successful teachers of African American children because they couldn't relate to them in genuine ways" (22).
I experienced this personally. Our curriculum coordinator thought she had a sympathizer in my ELA partner, who was African American. Well, she wasn't raised in the South and had more in common with me, the white girl, than the curriculum coordinator.
I felt I was effective with our students, but I noticed that my ELA partner could get away with a lot more "outrageous" behaviors because the kids excused her as "one of us." The assumption was she was the better teacher because she was easier to relate to. And then our third year working together she got into some trouble when she attempted to teach a racially-charged book to a class of predominately white children. When we spoke about it, she seemed confused why these parents, who had had no problem with her controversial lessons prior to this, suddenly didn't want their children learning about this particular book.
I really responded to Liz's observation on page 22 that in order to "teach black kids well, a white teacher has to be able to say, 'I know I'm white and this can be really complicated, so let's talk about why that could be'." One of the best lessons I ever taught was during a unit on juvenile justice. One of my black male students had a huge chip on his shoulder. He was convinced "the system" was out to get him. And by "the system" he meant everyone who was white. He made a comment about "honkies" and the whole class sucked in their breath waiting to see what their "honky" teacher would say. I just addressed it honestly. Calling me a "honky" was as derogatory as me calling someone of color the "n" word and why did he feel discriminated against? It was such an honest discussion, it really opened my eyes. The kids wanted to tell me what it was like to be black or Latino.
Another time my student aide asked me why my hair was so soft when hers felt so dry and rough. I said I didn't know, but I had always wanted to have curls like she did. We looked up the science of hair together and learned about why different races had different texture hair.
In the end, I absolutely agree with Michie's observation that "good teaching...nearly always comes back to personal relationships" (48). And I hope that my students, no matter their color, learned that we can all work together and honesty goes a long way. I know I changed at least one boy's opinion of white people.
Second question: In what ways can we learn from our teachers of color to improve our own teaching?
I will not be at the meeting on Thursday. I have a meeting at the church. Can someone please email me what we discuss and any decisions? annadavila1981@gmail.com
Thanks!  Anna

Chapter 1

Well I just finished reading Chapter 1, and I thought it was an excellent introduction to the author, his background, and teaching philosophy. But more importantly what the purpose of this book is, and his overall hypothesis. Michie wants to explore first hand teaching experiences of teachers in urban classrooms. Specifically minority teachers.

One aspect of the chapter that I was very impressed by was Michie bringing to the forefront his one prejudices and how this books is really his interpretations (a snapshot as it is called in the book) of the events he observed. I feel that researchers do not do this enough. Last semester I had a course covering Ethnographic research and one of the key aspects of this research approach that I liked a lot was admitting your own prejudices and biases right away. That way the reader knows where the author is coming from, and has the best possible "whole picture" at their disposal to make their own conclusions.

"Regular" research very rarely does this.

Welcome to our Blog

Hi everyone, welcome to our blog on Reflections on See You When You Get There. I hope everyone has the username and password. If you do not, please contact me and I will send it to you. The way I am thinking we can best use this blog is commenting on others posts. In order to do this, you just need to be logged into your Gmail account and then you will be able to post comments on everyone's posts. Please let me know what you think?

-Pete