Inequality in the Classroom

Nieto’s chapter on racism, discrimination, and expectations opened up my eyes to racism in the classroom, which even occurs with some teachers that mean well. Looking back on my years in school, I can see how different groups were treated in certain ways. What surprised my most was the differential treatment of girls in school. I had never noticed the different ways in which my teachers interacted with both boys and girls, but the descriptions that were written are familiar to the ways in which girls and boys were treated in my classrooms. Recently, there have been news reports about the possible benefits of separate classrooms for boys and girls because of their differing traits. I feel that this is an uneffective way to educate students because educators cannot make the assumption that all girls learn a certain way and all boys learn a certain way. I think that the way in which boys and girls are taught and treated in school had a huge effect on the way in which they act. If boys are expected to be more vocal in the classroom throughout their entire education, they will be. Another important point that was discussed in the chapter was teachers’ reluctance to discuss race in the classroom. I must agree, that whenever I have discussed race in classes I have felt a little uncomfortable, and I’m not sure why. I know that as a teacher, I am going to need to be able to face this issue and be comfortable with it in order for my students to feel comfortable with it. The saddest fact about discrimination and expectations was how strongly it affected certain groups in a negative way. Nieto describes "self-fulfilling prophecy," in which students perform in ways according to teachers’ expectations. As an educator, it is a teacher’s job to encourage their student to strive to do the best that they can. Teachers that acknowledge a student’s race or social status may lower their expectations for that student, which in turn only hurts them. Now that I have read about how a persons’ race, gender, and economic status affects their education, I can see dozens of examples from my high school experience. I hope that now that I am aware of these differences in which students are treated, I will be sure to manage a classroom in which everyone has an equal opportunity to excel in the classroom.