Anti-racism Training

On November 21, 2014 I had the opportunity to attend a Anti-racism training workshop. Regina Shands Stoltzfus an Assistant Professor of PJCS at Goshen College, led the training that day. We went over the history of the institutionalize racism, Census, the Clark doll experiment, and scenarios of how people handle religion, gender and race. All these things in some way or form have shaped our society and schools to the way it is now.

Overall, I felt like this training was insightful. I found it interesting when Regina said that white people fall under the unmarked norm. They don't notice that they're white because they are the majority. I feel like this is true in every country, there are people that don't notice who they are until they are the minority. Society makes minority groups feel different and out of the loop. These groups are sometimes oppressed by society.

In a school setting, most of the stuff that I learned in this training could be applied. One thing that should be done in any classroom is that we need to get to know the students and not just use their color of skin to assume who they are. In the training, Regina stated that people judge or make assumptions based off of the one’s last name or color of skin. This could lead to better opportunities or less depending on what type of person the evaluator is.

I am not saying that we should completely ignore who these students are, but we should embrace everything that they are. All of the students in the United States are different learners and come from different backgrounds. As teachers we need to make sure that these students are valued in the classroom setting. We can do this by modifying our classroom to embrace their heritage and we can use different types of books that represent a variety of cultures. This is all important because we need students to see at a young age that everyone is equally important and no one is less, if they have a different color of skin.

Personally, when I was going through the public school system I didn't get to value my heritage or culture until I got to college. Students at all ages need to know that they belong. When they know that they belong, getting an education is going to become more valuable for them. We can value their culture either it be through books or decorating the room every once in a while with different things that come from different cultures.