This is a great feature in the Washington Post about a 5th grade teacher in Austin, TX, Emily E. Smith. Her acceptance speech for the Donald H. Graves Excellence in Teaching Writing is excerpted int eh feature. The passage that made my jaw drop, and is particularly relevant for me and my colleagues and many friends in education, was this:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/11/24/teacher-a-student-told-me-i-couldnt-understand-because-i-was-a-white-lady-heres-what-i-did-then/
Ms. Smith's Website:
http://hivesociety.weebly.com/
Full story:
Roughly 80 percent of teachers in the United States today are white. Yet the population of our students is a palette. That means America’s children of color will, for the majority of their school years, not have a teacher who is a reflection of their own image. Most of their school life they will be told what to do and how to do it by someone who is white, and most likely female. Except for a few themed weeks, America’s children of color will read books, watch videos, analyze documents and study historical figures who are also not in their image.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/11/24/teacher-a-student-told-me-i-couldnt-understand-because-i-was-a-white-lady-heres-what-i-did-then/
Ms. Smith's Website:
http://hivesociety.weebly.com/