Assignment B #5

Teaching at the Intersections by Monita Bell is a powerful piece of work that addresses intersectionality from multiple angles.  From the get-go, Bell addresses the importance of educators: “helping students like Nicole navigate the world—and the way the world responds to them—is fundamental responsibility as an educator.”  Like many of the other texts we have read over the course of the semester, Bell stresses that teachers are on the front lines when it comes to setting the expectation, response, and understanding for all matters of intersectionality.  Bell adds that when educators use an intersectional lens in their pedagogy, they are better able to “relate to and affirm all students—like Nicole—and to help young people understand the relationship between power and privilege through the curriculum.”  The last part of this quote is the most difficult because intersectionality is not often inherent in school curriculum;  it takes an educator to be creative and motivated to make the connections between class content and diverse student experiences.  The irony in this is that it takes experienced teachers to do this work, and as we have learned this semester, the schools with the most diverse populations that could benefit the most from this have the least experienced teachers!

When I first started teaching I thought homework was very important.  I assigned it almost every night and began to notice that one group of students always completed it while another group never did.  This made me mad!  How did MY students not understand the importance of homework? Do THEY not care about their education?  Eventually, I pulled one of the students aside after class one day and reemed him out.  I saw so much potential in him but his grade was suffering because he wasn’t doing any learning at home. After I got everything I needed to say to him out, this students told me that he was not doing his homework because his mom works the night shift and when he gets home he needs to do all the cleaning, pick up his siblings from day care, cook for them, and put them to bed. Wow. I felt like a total jerk.  Who was I demanding things from students I didn’t even know?  This has always lived with me and has helped guide my teaching (and expectations) to a place that much more values intersectionality.

Lastly, Five tips for being an ally by Chescaleigh is a high energy, informative video that I will definitely be showing my students this fall.  In it, Chescaleigh talks about how individuals don’t experience or even think about certain things, just because of who they are.  She likens this to a horse with blinders on it that the horse can see what is going on right in front of it but it is unaware of everything that is going on around it.  I think this is a powerful image because it is something we are all familiar with and it speaks about the truth of intersectionality.  I, as a white man, have never thought about the chance of getting shot when a cop pulls my car over on the road. I, as a cis gender man, have never felt uncomfortable in the bathroom or questioned if I am in the right one.  I think this video will give my students a lot to reflect on, and will hopefully generate some good conversation about intersectionality in our school community.