Urban, Low SES & Black Male – The single story of African-American & Latino kids in US schools.
I teach in a school in a part of town that many people call “urban”. I teach in class setting that many people call “special education”. Most people don’t know these things about me. They just know I am a teacher. They often assume that it is in suburbia and that my students are typical i.e. general education students. The reason being is that most of the time I talk about my students as individuals. I talk about the fun things my students do, the things we learned, how I rode my bicycle to school, and other random teacher anecdote type things.
When I tell most lay people (non teachers) where I teach in a neighborhood in southern Los Angeles, people often gasp and make an interesting comment.
I have heard variations of, “It must be challenging,” or “Is it dangerous?” or just, “Wow!!!”
When I tell them I teach special education they say, “That is so nice of you to do that.”
These are the reasons that I never start off my conversation about the children that I teach with the neighborhood they live in or their ability levels. I know the single story story that has been told. I know that “urban” is just code for black and poor or Latino and poor. I know once most people hear “abc” neighborhood or “def” syndrome their
