During my long career as an educator, I was fortunate to work for and with colleagues for whom the practice of inclusivity was important. Some of my very best teachers were my students, who were willing to be honest. On this Martin Luther King Jr. day of recognition and celebration, I recall with deep appreciation and considerable pain two of those students. I will share one story today and one in future writing.
At The Langley School in McLean, Virginia, our 8th graders’ history course included a major unit on World War II. Among other things, we read Night, by Elie Wiesel, and Hiroshima, by John Hersey. In follow up to the latter, the students debated whether or not the bomb should have been dropped. They were stunned one year when a girl of Japanese heritage argued in the affirmative. Her parents felt lives had been saved.
In follow up to Night, every year we held an Outcast Simulation. Over the course of a month, one day each week I would enter the classrooms and declare that random students would be outcasts for the day. Generally, my reasons were something like, “Mr. Silvano, I have just realized that you have some students born in January and August. I’m not sure how that happened, but we all know that they should not be treated as full citizens.”
For the rest of the day, the outcasts had to enter classrooms last, could be excluded from games at recess, and teachers (not their classmates) could make them do menial tasks around the classroom. At the end of each Outcast day, I would invite those who had been excluded into my office to welcome them “back” and ask how the experience affected them. As is their wont, kids were open and appreciative, but it was all part of a game.
I don’t remember specific comments until one young man, a boy of Color who had been with us for a few years said to me, “Mrs. Glass, this is the only time my classmates have experienced what it is like to be me.”
His comment had a huge impact on me then – and still does. This young man seemed an integral part of the class – and was, in many ways. But his experiences, especially outside of school, were markedly different from most of his classmates’ and teachers’.
In the wake of the murder of Renee Good, as White residents of Minneapolis react with understandable fear, we should all be reminded that those feelings and cautions are ones that People of Color experience every day.
Glass Full 