Race has been at the front of my mind lately. Today I reflected on my interactions with students of color at my own school setting and wondered why it is that I am more confident in the effectiveness of my approach with African-American students, and less so with Latino students. Is it a cultural? In terms of the neighborhood demographics of my school, I have more in common with African-Americans when it comes to such interests as television, sports, media, shopping and the like. Is it a matter of language? African-American families would have a general advantage (in terms of relating with me) over families that spoke Spanish as a first language.
But no. I realized that the gap in my confidence has little to do with the above, and far more to do with a simpler concept: numbers. There are only ten to twenty African-American students in my school. On the other hand, there are hundreds of Latino students. If I could focus my energy on developing a strategy to help African-American students, I could do it, because even as one individual, I could make the time to establish a personal relationship with each student. But if I were tasked with improving the school experience for Latino students, I wouldn't know where to start.
And so, I experienced something of an epiphany. No matter how effective I might be as a one-on-one educator, I will not become a transcendent principal unless I develop the skills to motivate an entire school staff to buy into a shared vision about students of color. I can impact students one at a time, but in a school of hundreds, that will not "get the job done." I will need the help of many others.
Part of me resists accepting over-used phrases like "systemic change" and "leadership," but today I feel more open to those concepts.
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