Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

Last week I encounter what I perceived to be racism.  My classroom is comprised of three African American teachers, eight African American children and two Caucasian children.  One of the Caucasian children transitioned to the next age group.  This left the one Caucasian in the classroom with all African American Children and teaches.  Once the parent found out that the child had transitioned, she asked to have her son moved to the classroom across the hall.  Two of the teachers in this room were Caucasian and one was African American.   Seven of the children were Caucasian and two were African American. 

The director reminded the mom that the child had just transitioned into the classroom the previous week and that the child may need a little time to adjust to his new environment.  She informed her that he may experience even more anxieties if he moves again so soon.  The parent began to cry and stated that her son is normally happy and that she did not want to lose that.

The parent began to make formal complaints about her child crying for long periods of time when she dropped him off.   She said this was causing her to be late for work because she could not leave her child when he was crying like this.  The next day she made another complaint that she had informed the teacher that her child had switched to whole milk and the teacher did not communicate this to the other staff; therefore, her son was given the wrong milk.  Later, she complained that her child came home with a scratch on his back and no one was able to tell her what happen. 

We tried everything we could to reassure the parent that the child was safe and that he only cries for a few minutes after she leaves.  I tried to help the mom make the adjustment by informing her that she could have the clerk at the front desk, pull up the classroom  on the monitor so that she could see how he interacts when she leaves.   She refused to do this and stayed in the classrooms.  I then tried to explain to the mom that her son can sense her tension and will display the same behaviors.  It did not matter what was said or done to reassure her, she wanted her child to be moved.

We asked the parent if she would like to have a conference with the classroom teachers, program Training and Curriculum Specialist and Program Director so that we could brainstorm of ways to meet the needs of her family.  She agreed, but the day of the conference, she met with the Director alone and refused to meet with the group as a whole. Needless to say, the Director decided to move the child.

When I was told the child was going to be moved, my first thought was what message are we sending to not only our children, but to the other families in our program.  I feel that if there were indeed a valid concern with our teaching methods, then we needed to get to the root of it, because by agreeing to move her child does not fix the problem.  I did not want to believe this was a racist move, but deep down I felt that it was, because the mom refused to give us a chance to meet their needs.  I think as that child, I would grow up with prejudices and biases towards individuals who were not of the dominate culture.  I would not know the true meaning of embracing diversity because I never got the opportunity to experience it.  I am happy to say that our entire program fosters anti-bias learning; therefore, this family will have another opportunity to learn to accept and respect diversity.  I hope that as a program we can help his mom learn ways to embrace diversity so that she is better able to support her child’s anti-bias learning.