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Thursday, Dec. 6, 2012 | 2:02 a.m.
Another view?
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As a teacher, I have been told I am nice, I am mean, and I have even been told I was too boring. However, it came a surprise to me to read in the Sun that I am now too white to teach for the Clark County School District (“ ‘Teacher diversity gap’ cause for concern in CCSD schools”).
The CCSD has decided that students from culturally diverse backgrounds will better benefit from being taught by teachers of the same ethnicity. Really? I guess it no longer matters to the CCSD that, as a 40-something who is new to the teaching field, I bring a lifetime of experiences to my classroom, many of which I have in common with my diverse group of students even though we are not of the same color.
I have a student who hails from the same part of New York as I do, and we reminisced over being able to see the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade in person.
I have cried with students who are having family drama.
I brought in a craft project I had finished to show my class, and now a student wants me to teach her that art form.
I have had Hispanic students approach me to compare my daughter’s Bat Mitzvah to the Quinceañeras of their culture. One of these students being a boy who I had butted heads with for over a year, but we finally bonded looking at pictures of my daughter’s and his cousin’s events.
For students who are embarrassed by being raised by grandparents or living in multigenerational households, I share with them that I lived in a multigenerational household as a child and loved having my extended family under one roof.
While I can share all of these rich experiences with my students, I do not share the same color as many of them. I do not see how that makes me any less of a teacher.
Wendy says "I am now too white to teach for the Clark County School District"
Welcome to the America that Obama has wrought
---
In Obama's fair shot world view white can no long get hire or do an acceptable job
In Obama's fair shot world view white are no longer qualified
Obama's election in 2008 and 2012 showed that whites accepted Obama
But Obama has turned his back on whites as second class citizens
---
An excellent letter! How do we expand diversity and acceptance of differences as norms without practicing it?
If the CCSD finding that teachers of the same ethnicity as the students do better at teaching them, then let's all promote and provide home schooling. End of story.
I'm more concerned about the new white wash star system rating. It appears to be a scam from all I read and hear. Maybe the ethnicity study is a diversion tactic?
CarmineD
Re Future: Do you actually believe what you wrote? If you do, please enlighten us with some factual data to back up your assertions.
A good letter. Shows that racism is alive in the CCSD, and just when we thought there was about to equality in America.
Racism has been alive and well in this COUNTRY forever. A "diversity gap" in the CCSD may indeed exist. This is nothing new in school systems throughout the country. When I went to school, my teachers were ALL white.
Wendy Gelbart, of Las Vegas,
My heart goes out to you. Being a teacher, your one of the first pillars of the community in helping the children.
Being treated differently has many challenges, which only a person that been treated differently could understand. Many people of color deal with what your experiencing daily. They find ways to over come the bias, prejudices and special treatment. This never becomes accepted nor tolerated. What it does is create divisions in the community.
Your challenge Wendy Gelbart, is to challenge the actions by CCSD. Your being treated differently, this is an opportunity for you to united others and to show that discrimination can affect anyone.
Future:
I started crying when I read your note on what that awful Obama character has done to white folks.
And when I stopped laughing, I felt bad for you.
Don't be ashamed of your whiteness, maybe some day you will have another Bush be president who will give whitey everything back that that d@#$ Obama took from you whites.
Keep your chin up!
Always look on the bright side of life...
Future,
I rarely ever respond to your posts.But today you have forced my hand on what you have said in your in your 4:08 AM post today.
You sound like a racist,and a person who is trying to spread hate amongst your fellow commenters.Seeing and reading what you have said,makes me all the more want to keep my distance from you and what you have to say in the future.
Fear, jealousy, and low self-esteem, are strong indicators of a person who has issues with women and people of color.
So, what else is new. The deck has been "stacked" for decades in favor of the "poor," "minorities," sexual perverts, females and other "victims" of a "biased" society. The "Commie-Lites" look under their beds and come away seeing a "racist" and "intolerant" society - one that hinders all of the above from achieving their goals. It's never their fault or the fact that many are lazy ignorant uneducated drunks & dopers who love being "victims" as it pays well. Yes, there are folks who need our help, but no one can convince me that 49 million of my fellow Americans (and some who are not) need or deserve some form of government monetary assistance. It's just not credible. More likely, it's the "Commie-Lites" trying their best to undermine the traditional United States of America by buying votes and, in the process, giving them more power over us. I say, a pox on them!
@ Jerry Reading your letters on a regular basis I sometimes wonder, when you mock "victims", if you are describing yourself.
Yep, them dang "commie-lites" are nabbing all the riches, alright.
Just a bunch a wimmin, losers, loafers, and lightweights.
REAL Amerikans don't need no dang hand-outs, right, Jerr?
This is the logical conclusion of the liberal mindset. It goes from thinking "we need more people of color in the teaching profession" to thinking "students of color should only be taught by teachers of color", as if a non-white student couldn't possibly learn something from a white teacher. All this is done under the banner of "diversity" which is just a euphemism for discrimination against whites. Pretty sick mindset,um?
Wendy needs to be sent to a re-education camp.
The politburo is not pleased with her remarks.
The liberal mindset concludes that in diversity is strength.
Except diversity of thought, of course.
LVN: "Fear, jealousy, and low self-esteem, are strong indicators of a person who has issues with women and people of color."
Or the teacher who berates the female student who wore the Romney t-shirt to class.
Future's post at 4:08 is outrageous nonsense, even by his own lowly standards. We understand that feelings were hurt on the right after the Democrats thrashed them in the elections. But still.
Dear Mrs. Gelbart,
I hope what you have exhibited today is not representative of the critical thinking or reading comprehension skills taught today in our schools.
I read that article again. Your conclusions are not representative of what was written in the article. Maybe, as homework tonight, you can reread it and try to reapply the aforementioned skills.
Take, for example, your declaration that, "I am now too white to teach for the Clark County School District!"
I must ask, did you read the entire article, and not just the headline? Were you offended when Greta Peay, director of the district's equity and diversity education department, said, "But any teacher who is culturally sensitive, knows the background of students and is open to working with them -- regardless of their ethnicity -- can reach minority students and do well. You don't have to look, talk and walk like your students to teach them."
Did you skip the following paragraph?
"It's not that children of color require instruction from teachers of color, Vesneske said. Rather, it's that schools and students of all backgrounds benefit when there is diversity among educators."
The state wants to recruit more minority teachers by attending job fairs at minority colleges. They also note that the alternative road to licensure needs revision:
"In addition, Nevada's Alternative Routes to Licensure -- which proponents say allows mid-career, minority professionals to become teachers -- is too complicated and has too many requirements, Vesneske said."
Do these observations threaten your job? No. Your hysterical outrage at the district seeking to expand diversity within its ranks makes me question the caliber of teachers at CCSD. Your conclusions are not borne of the source material.
You have nothing to fear from increased diversity at CCSD.
99 says "I read that article again. Your conclusions are not representative of what was written in the article"
Then 99 reported that "Vesneske said "it's that schools and students of all backgrounds benefit when there is diversity among educators."
So what Vesneske means is whites need not apply
What is it about the conclusion that 99 can not understand
I would not agree that President Obama has made Caucasians second class citizens, as a particular commentator has suggested. But, it is true that many Americans, such as this particular commentator have reduced themselves to at least a second class status since Barack Obama has become President. Racist beliefs will do that.
On the other side of the spectrum, there are those minorities who believe that just because of their ethnicity they deserve an advantage over other racial origins. There was a time for racial quotas in hiring, but that time has now passed. Those who now utilize the "race card" as a trump in life are reducing themselves to second-class citizens. Excuses for one's failures will do that.
I am Caucasian, however, a life without people of both genders and ethnic diversities who were great "role models" and "teachers" would have certainly dampened my development and standards as a person.
For instance, in my troubled teen years, an elderly Afro-American man who lived in the ghettos taught me all about the Dr. Martin Luther King and how to be a caring person that believes and practices equality. This great friend of mine passed on in 1968, but remains to this day an instrumental part of my life.
My Senior Drill Instructor in Marine Corps boot camp was another great Afro-American man who instilled in me physical and mental toughness, but also the quality of protecting those who cannot protect themselves. This man was a great leader and teacher of men. After forty-two years, he still remains to this day an instrumental part of my life.
Another was an Afro-American woman who was a nurse. She was a great woman who devoted her life to healing and caring for the sick and nurturing children without parents and or caretakers. She still remains to this day an instrumental part of my life.
Here is my point, where would this Caucasian man be today without having had these great Afro-American men and women in my life? I can't even possibly conceive of it.
When I think of the America that I love, I think of all the people in my years on this Earth that have been of both genders and practically every conceivable ethnic origin that have been a part of me. They are all a part of what makes America great. Those who rest on the extreme sides are our second class citizens. But, the truth is, they have done it to themselves.
Wendy, I LOOK White too but am very mixed. But since the schools and all government functions are supposed to serve ALL Americans, why aren't we seeing adequate and appropriate media coverage of the multitude of cultures in America? What about those of German descent with strong ethics? What about the English descendants with ties to Merry Old? What about those who had great-grands who spent a few generations in Canada but didn't like the social welfare government?
As a White-looking woman, I'm disrespected for being "Caucasoid." There is some of that in my dna but I grew up off a reservation of NATIVE Americans. My first "professional" employment required much of my daytimes in the ghettos. My coworkers and friends were then and since of many
shades. I recall one phone worker (Black) laughing so hard....she was taking a survey and asked me what color I was. I told her "I'm Pink. No wait, right now I'm Brown, dark Brown, cause I tan real well." OK, I start out the color of white paper and have pale eyes AND I have full siblings with black hair, dark eyes, darker skin. Maybe I should have a dna analysis to find out if great-great-grand Dad was really from Lithuania. Not sure they can tell since Europe has various national borders but the peoples have "intermarried" for centuries. Ditto Asia, Africa, South America, United States.
Comment removed by moderator. Off Topic
Ms. Gelbart,
Please advise as to for whom you voted in the last Presidential election. Afterwards, please repeat the mantras "you reap what you sow" and "when you lie with dogs, you get fleas." Now, go away and quit whining.
Regards
Purgatory
It appears CCSD is more interested in diversion than diversity. This latest p.c. theory on why "people of color"...(love that stupid term, is anyone walking around void of color?), don't perform as well and what to do about it once again side steps real issues and allows CCSD to skate along a few more years with little closing of the "achievement gap".
This, as always, is a disservice to everyone, but focusing on a students parents, abilities, home life, and other real environmental factors is not politically correct, so everyone will continue to be ordered to "pay no attention to that man behind the curtain"
Future's rants remind me about a comment concerning the recent teapot tempest to exhume Yasser Arafat: It makes no difference whether further examination shows he was poisoned or not. The nuts on both wings will NOT alter their fixed positions in the least, while those in-between have long since moved on.
Late arrival today. My take on the above bloviations? Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah. Some of the "comments" on this blog resemble EDITORIALS, possibly better placed on the pages of the Sun itself, not this blog. Most of the posters on this blog have already gone to bed, but I will say my piece, as usual. You can't put a reply button here, but you can print the dissertations of people like Chaplin, that go ON AND ON AND ON AND ON. Just sayin'.
A parting shot. Nobody gives a sh*t about anybody's life experiences leading up to a sentence or two that's relevant to the actual thread content. Start editing these bloviations a bit, to make the thread somewhat coherent. This blog is slightly out of control on content. Thanks.
I thank you Mr. Lind for your criticisms pertaining to my commentaries in the Las Vegas Sun discussion rooms.
I'm glad you have a place to lash-out.
You said it yourself, Mr. Lind; "When I went to school, my teachers were ALL white."
I believe that statement of yours, indisputably. You are truly the product of all your teachers being white.
Among the most important tools in transforming this republic into a socialist state are:
1) affirmative action;
2) diversity;
3) multiculturalism;
4) inclusiveness.
All these measures are aimed against the white males, and favor the inferior personnel. Exempted from these communist measures are football and basketball where the merits prevail, resulting in some 90% of players being black.
CCSD needs to recruit more unwed hispanic mothers in order to relate to the future unwed hispanic mothers.
Schools are a reflection of the neighborhood they are in. Upon closer examination, these schools are staffed with appropriate diversity mixes, and both the CCSD HR and the Diversity and Equity Departments have done a superb job in maintaining the diversity balances.
Really, the gist of the original article seemed to have pointed out, was that there are fewer qualified teachers from other cultures going into education, making it a bit more challenging to maintain equal staffing mixes. The purpose of that article is subject to interpretation.
Blessings and Peace,
Star