Session Two Activity Two-Personal/Professional
Cultural Diversity Critical Incident
To begin this diversity situation that occurred
while I was teaching, it is necessary that I provide a little background
information. First of all, I am Caucasian. I am ivory in color
and it is obvious that there is no hint of any other ethnicity in me.
In addition, I work at a charter school called the Fort Worth Can Academy.
My campus serves a predominately at-risk, low-income population. About
67% of the students are Hispanic, 8% African-American, and 25% Caucasian.
Our days begin at 7:50 a.m. with about 120 students for four classes and
then another set of 120 students at 12:50 for four classes also. Students
either are part of the morning session or the afternoon session. The
day ends at 5:00 p.m. for the teachers and staff. What the traditional
public school does in eighteen weeks, we do in nine weeks.
It was the twentieth of September and the day began like
any average day. I got into my car to head to work at about 7:00 a.m.
The drive was not unusual and I arrived at work at 7:27 a.m. I hurried to
the copying machine to barely get my copies for my Psychology, Sociology,
and Child Development classes ready. The first bell rang as I stepped
into my classroom at 7:47 a.m. Around second period, the assistant principal
came by to see if I would substitute for Mr. Christian, our P.E. teacher,
during my planning period the fourth class of the afternoon. I told
her I would be happy to. The morning went by quickly and the afternoon
went smoothly.
The fourth class in the afternoon, I made my way to Mr.
Christian’s room. His room is in a portable building horizontal to
the main building. Behind the portable is a volleyball net. Mr.
Christian left instructions to play volleyball with these students.
After taking role, the class proceeded to the volleyball court. The
net ran horizontal to the building. Six boys took the side closest
to the portable and I along with two boys and two girls manned the other
side. We played a competitive game. Several girls looked on and
refused to participate, a decision that resulted in a zero in the grade book.
One boy on the opposite team was a little cocky.
The other boys were fairly quiet. This particular boy began to brag
about how much better he was than everyone else and he hogged the ball.
I was up to serve and I took the ball to the back line. At that moment,
a seventeen year old, bigger built, Hispanic female said a bunch of curse
words. These words caught my attention. I had not heard if the
boy with the attitude had said anything, but she continued to hurl insults
at him, including some racial slurs. She also called the larger built,
Hispanic, male—that had been loquacious and bragging—to shut his mouth.
This female student claimed she was going to kick his face in. All
of the words that she spoke were in Spanish. Before the boy could get
a word out of his mouth, I told her that the language and insults were inappropriate
no matter what the boy had said and I said all of this in Spanish.
The whole class stopped and looked at me. Some of the students’ eyes
were wide open with amazement. I told them in English, “I may be white,
but I speak some Spanish. My husband is from Puerto Rico.” A
student replied, “Well, that explains the last name!” The 5:00 p.m. bell
rang and the students ran off. Of course, I told the assistant principal
and Mr. Christian about the students fight. I had never noticed the
difference between my students and myself before, but this situation certainly
opened up my eyes to how students' perceive race and ethnicity. As
a first year teacher, this was a great lesson in diversity awareness.