Racial Discussion in the Classroom

    Despite the belief that our society is colorblind and totally equal, we still have very many racial inequity problems here in the United States. Some of our biggest problems lie within our educational system. Most people, including teachers, harbor the beliefs that African American students under perform and Asian American students exceed performance standards, when in reality each student is different.

    It is extremely important to discuss openly and unbiasedly discuss racial issues within our educational system to help each student reach his or her true potential. With all of the different stereotypes surrounding each student, they can become discouraged or start believing the stereotype is actually true. This will lead to everyone holding on to resentment for actions that most people are not even aware are happening. 

    It is up to teachers within the education system to bring these issues to everyone’s attention and begin the change. In a study done at Liberty University, it was found that “Teachers’ opinions concerning the perceptive dimensions of their students as well as a teachers’ obligation to the profession of teaching in itself, portrays an important part in the formation of their students’ academic achievement” (Batts 2012, p. 8).  A teacher’s perception of a student directly impacts that students academic performance. If a teacher holds fast to these stereotypes, the teacher’s students will embrace those stereotypes rather than find their true potential. Educators need to forget the stereotypes and see each student for what he or she truly is. They should strive to make their classroom free of any discriminations based upon race or ethnicity. It begins with a teacher.

    I think one strategy for talking about race within a classroom is by letting each student show their heritage, through projects, show-and-tell, or papers, and presenting, rather than letting someone else define them. For younger kids this may be a little harder, but you could still openly discuss race by showing and helping kids understand that despite difference of looks or belongings, they all have important roles in society.

    Race is an incredibly hard issue to bring up in school even 50 years after the Civil Rights Movement. As a society we pretend that we don’t see race, but we still see the stereotypes that each race holds. We need to truly break free by addressing the problem and changing attitudes.




Works Cited

Batts, P. L. (2012). Urban versus Suburban Public Schools: Resolving the Issue of Racial Inequality in Education. Online Submission,

Breaking the Social Norm

Hi, my name is Cree and I am a junior at the University of North Georgia. I am making this blog for my class about diversity in the elementary school classroom. Our first blog post is about breaking a social norm and others’ reactions to me doing so. 

 My good friend Paige and I decided that we were going to go eat dinner with a big group of our friends and pay with only coins. We really chose this idea because we could fit it into our schedule and we thought it would be fairly simple. Little did we know how weird it would be. 

I think the hardest part for me was trying to find enough money in coins to actually pay for a meal. We went to Mexican restaurant in Dahlonega, Georgia, which is not very upscale, but pretty normal for us. It became awkward when we went to pull out our money to pay. Our friends stared and kept giggling and some looked even a little uncomfortable while we waited for the waiter to pick up our tabs. One of our friends even offered to help us pay for our meal. When the waiter came to get the check, he looked confused at first, but then he took pity on us. We couldn’t figure out why, but then we realized that he probably thought we were poor and thats really all we had left for a meal. 

People who decide to go out to each in restaurants are usually expected to pay for a meal in cash or with a debit or credit card. By paying with coins, we were almost a little looked down upon. And it was automatically assumed that we didn’t have enough money, not that we were making a choice to pay with change. I think this says a lot about our culture because smaller bills are just thought to be lesser. Our culture is based off of socioeconomic status and  we were put into a lower tier purely because we decided to pay a different way than others. I think this really shows how we are valued in society purely off how we pay for things or how we look to the outside. It definitely showed me how narrow-minded our culture is and unknowingly so. 

Thanks for reading,
Cree