Does American society want to educate all of its children? An
optimist would respond that of course it does, but it just can’t seem
to provide equity in its distribution of resources and educational
outcomes. Others would argue that social, political and economic forces
create hurdles which slow or completely retard the flow of positive
educational goods and benefits into certain communities.
But such forecasters sit on the periphery of actual classrooms and
schools and hurl their ideas, theories and statistical models. The end
result is often a neatly packaged and publicly distributed report that
blames the victims for their own educational demise.
On the other hand, how would that initial question be answered by
the infantry who monitor the front lines of the educational landscape,
who wage war in classrooms and communities against overwhelming odds,
and who seek to mold the lives, hopes and dreams of generations of
Black youth?
Their answers are contained in Michele Foster’s book, Black Teachers
on Teaching, which serves as a narrative scorecard of America’s
educational success with children of color. Foster, a professor of
education and a consultant, has gathered life-history interviews from
twenty teachers who are drawn from a diverse pool. They vary in age, in
background, in years of teaching, in type of school, in disciplines
taught, and in other demographic characteristics. They were selected
through a “community nomination” process which identified them as some
of the most committed and effective instructors.
The interviews are categorized according to the length of teaching
experience of the speakers. Ranging from elders and veterans to
novices, their words span more than fifty years of tireless dedication.
Black teachers are part of a long tradition with a definite mission and
nowhere is this more evident than through the pages of this book of
narratives The book’s purpose is quite evident: It is to serve as a
testimony and realistic guide to one of America’s most demanding jobs –
teaching Black youth within an educational and social system that is
unforgiving and unprepared to meet the needs of these kids.
At times, the different stories are permeated with the various ways
that Black teachers handle conflict and contradiction with the
students, with the administration, and within themselves. One novice
teacher, Leonard Collins, tries to cope with the fact that schools are
meant to socialize kids into many things with which Black teachers
don’t agree. He can’t, for example, introduce an Afrocentric curriculum
because it conflicts with the existing Eurocentric one. Thus he is
forced to be creative but not disruptive.
Several teachers discuss the self-examination they experience as
they are shifted from segregated, all-Black schools to desegregated
ones. They wonder aloud at the price that has been paid by Black
children who lose pride and self-esteem when they are psychologically
beaten down in desegregated schools.
