To many city students, learning isn’t cool. “Smart kids” get made fun of because “they don’t know they’re black,” said Donna Ford, a Vanderbilt University professor of education and human development.
But to break through urban social ills, cross cultural lines and teach children, Ford told Baltimore City’s 7,000 teachers this week that they first need to understand students’ culture, home environment and personalities.
Ford held three workshops, “Creating and Sustaining Environments to Support Teaching and Learning: Teacher/Student Relationships”, Wednesday and Thursday at Morgan State University. School officials said the attack on Reginald F. Lewis High School Jolita Berry that was caught on camera and broadcast on national news was one factor that prompted the school system to try to foster better student-teacher relations.
The type of school environment that allows violence is created over time, Ford said. She told teachers to use advanced vocabulary with students and to keep them active.
“When you keep students engaged, when you challenge them, when their mind is active, they are less likely to cut up and act a fool,” Ford said. “When you teach down to students, they act out.”
Ford also encouraged teachers to understand black history and culture so they can individualize instruction to best suit each student.
Jonathan Brice, the school system’s executive director of the student support services, said after the workshop that teaching is about more than having students memorize and regurgitate information.
“A lot of our students come to school angry, come to school upset, and that has nothing to do with school; it has everything to do with the environment they live in,” Brice said. “At the end of the day, it’s our job to teach kids.”
Michael Halamaka moved to Baltimore City from rural Michigan. To start his fourth year teaching, he is moving to Grove Park Elementary, a school where nearly all students are black.
“I have experience in racial issues, but this is a real eye-opener for me,” said Halamaka, a fifth-grade teacher who is white. “Just to really look at myself and see how I am having an effect and looking at other people.”
