Valuing All Children

A Reflection on "White Teacher" by Vivian Gussin Paley

“We must provide each of our children a world 
where they are truly valued.”
Rita Tenorio, Rethinking Our Classrooms, vol. 1, page 24

I finished Paley’s White Teacher in just one day! – Couldn’t put it down.  What I found most helpful was that she let the reader into her thoughts as they developed. She didn’t come off as an “expert” who had it all figured out, but showed us how “she grew to be comfortable with differences through a personal commitment to fairness and a determined effort to understand herself and culturally different people.” (from the Forward by James Comer, M.D. and Alvin Poussaint, M.D.) By listening as Paley tried different approaches and held her own thoughts and actions up to scrutiny, I became more comfortable with the idea allowing myself to develop into the kind of teacher I want to be. Paley made a commitment to treating her students with fairness and she kept working at it, forgiving herself when she got it wrong, but adjusting and changing to do better at it.  I feel that watching this process of a teacher challenging herself to be better was extremely helpful to me.

In Chapter 6 of Why Race and Culture Matter in School, Howard speaks to this idea as well, writing, “If a teacher is truly interested in arriving at a space of equitable teaching, reflection, and analysis, a commitment to both racial awareness and cultural competence should be a lifelong process.” (page 119) Cultural competence isn’t something that we just take a course in and then don’t have to think about again – it requires us to be constantly vigilant about our own thoughts and actions. It requires a genuine commitment to ask ourselves, in Paley’s words, “Is this classroom in which I live a fair place for every child who enters?” (from the Preface, 2000 edition)

Paley goes on to make an even broader statement, “As I watched and reacted to black children, I came to see a common need in every child.  Anything a child feels is different about himself which cannot be referred to spontaneously, casually, naturally, and uncritically by the teacher can become a cause for anxiety and an obstacle to learning.” (Preface) That’s the real meat of it … in order to effectively teach all children, we must remove obstacles to learning.  We must see all children and value all children.  Children must “feel an equal sense of belonging.” (White Teacher, page 132)

I am making a “personal commitment to fairness” in my future classroom and I am willing to put in the “determined effort” toward equitable teaching. I may not get it right every time, but I am committed to putting in the effort.  In the words of Rita Tenorio, “I know that I must also be willing to take risks and make mistakes.  I must be open to the experiences of our children and their families. I must recognize and respond to the students’ negative behaviors. It’s a struggle, but I believe it’s a worthwhile one.  We must provide each of our children a world where they are truly valued.” ("Rethinking Our Classrooms", vol. 1, p. 24)