While
reading and critically analyzing the stories of African Americans from Remembering Jim Crow, one story really
resonated in my mind. The story of Georgia Sutton in Chapter 3 caused me to
connect ideals of female educators in the black community during the Jim Crow
era and modern teachers in the black community today. As a graduate of
Whitehaven High School, a predominately black school, it was fairly easy to
connect it to my experiences. If teachers were held in such high expectations
as they were during this period, the black community would highly benefit from
the morals and values being both taught and exemplified by female educators.
In her story, Georgia Sutton voiced
her experiences as a teacher in the Jim Crow South. As a female teacher, Sutton
was expected to uphold certain principles and to behavior in a respectful
manner in the public eye. For example, female teachers were expected to attend
church in the community, not to go to the clubs, be respectable in the
classroom, visit the children in the classroom, and to be role models in the
classroom. By upholding these principles, the teachers made a positive impact
on the students. However, these expectations were only of female teachers. In
contrast, male teachers could go anywhere and act in any manner that they
pleased.
During this time, teachers were the
role models in the community. The teachers, along with the aid of the parents,
modeled morals and principles being taught to the children every day of their
lives. As we can see, this generation of teachers yielded prosperous and
ambitious African Americans with a willingness to learn.
In
contrast with the Jim Crow teachers, modern teachers are free to do anything
that they please. The teachers that were present during my time at Whitehaven
High School would openly discuss their experiences that they had at parties,
clubs, and other social events during their weekends. Rarely did the teachers
talk about their experiences at church or dressed modestly. These actions not
only urged female students to continue to dress provocatively and encouraged disrespectable behaviors, but failed to display proper behavior to students.
Modern
teacher do have more “freedom” than Jim Crow teachers. In the black community,
the free expression of female teachers through modes of dressing and behavior
in the community has encouraged a generation of young African American students
with very few morals and values. Do you think that the board of education
should require teachers to uphold certain standards, such as dressing
appropriately in class and keeping their private life concealed from the public
eye and their students?
I agree that the teaching dynamic has definitely changed in the African American community over the years. For instance, I recently talked to my mother about her new job as an adviser of an after school program at a predominantly black school. She expressed to me that she had to earn the respect of the students in the program because that had been lost in the African American faculty at the school. There was no trust among the students for any adults with authority! It is amazing to see how respect for African American educators has shifted from the Jim Crow era until today. African American teachers during the Jim Crow era seemed to carry themselves with a dignity that commanded respect. They understood the importance of educated black youth in a society filled with stereotypes about how African Americans were ignorant, lazy, and inferior. Unfortunately this label of African Americans still exists; however, the struggle to change this has decreased by the masses, especially in the educational system. It is almost as if educators do not understand how much they influence the lives of a generation full of such impressionable youth. African American educators need to not only function as lesson planners and lecturers but also as positive role models and motivators for young black youth.
ReplyDeleteYour observations of the behavior of teacher’s behavior in predominately black schools struck me. Is the essence of Jim Crow still lingering today in a modern un-codified but still devastating way? In class Professor McKinney spoke of a lingering sense of inferiority, I wonder if the presence of this feeling looms on the teachers in the predominately black schools. Do they feel their job is less than those who work for more diverse or predominately white schools? Black teachers in the time of Jim Crow upheld the values they were taught while gaining the knowledge to be able to teach. They learned these professional values in order to remain afloat in a world of intellectuals. Jim Crow era teachers seemed to understand the idea of oneness as a race. That the knowledge they have acquired was not only factual and that it was their job to teach the black and less fortunate students all that they may have been segregated from. Today, I’m not sure if some teachers even want to teach their required curriculum.
ReplyDeleteI think we also have to consider the role of teaching today. I understand the parallels Kenneishia is making as far as race; but, with race aside, the role of teachers has really been undermined in our society. We all know that teachers were and still are important, yet the job of teaching was more so considered a great job then, than now. Today, teachers are some of the most disrespected, under-appreciated workers in our society. So I find it hard for them to be seen as role models, when our own society places more emphasis on celebrities and athletes as the idolized role models. Children are more exposed to these images and other sources that starkly contradict what kids had access to then.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if we are going to consider race and inferiority of teachers in the black community, we have to address the conditions of the schools. I did not attend a predominantly black school, but my school was really underfunded and the expectations were set pretty low. I know this affected me as a student, so I’m sure this impacted the teachers as well. However, with the few African American teachers I did have, they approached our classes with a different essence than some of my other teachers. They demanded a level of respect that other teachers did not, and they never were unprofessional because being of only a few teachers of color they really could not afford to. I believe race does play some part, but with the bigger picture in mind, teachers can only do so much when there are no defined standards or adequate facilities to cultivate a promising learning environment.
You could not have picked a better topic to write about in my opinion. Aside from parents and family, teachers are our next form of role model. If I think about it, since first grade I have had over 50 teachers in my life time and I have learned something different from each and every one of them. When I say I have learned something I do not necessarily mean the curriculum that they are teaching. I have learned life lesson. I have learned things that has prepared me to take on life and all of its speed bumps. In a society filled with rappers, pop-stars, glorified actors/actresses and reality T.V. stars, we need more of the POSITIVE role-models in the classroom. Once some of those teachers start losing their jobs to "real" role models, then they will start to step up their game and we will all benefit from a better education system.
ReplyDelete