Suspension and expulsion is a form of discipline that can be seen as a way to weave out students who cause problems. It eliminates students that cause problems in the classroom, so students who are actually learning can do so in a better environment. The black path painted by white hands is a path full of challenges. The challenges created by white people revolve around the continuation of dehumanizing the black character. This is done so in schools by allowing suspension and expulsion to even exist. There are multiple ways in which the school to prison pipeline stems from suspension and expulsions. A few examples are how after so many suspensions, a student is automatically expelled. A student can get into trouble at school and be sent straight to juvenile court.
Aside from ways the educational system intentionally sets up students of color, teachers do not invest much time in understanding what their minority students go through. Before becoming a teacher, one must go through a teaching program. These teaching programs usually train teachers on varies of topics including race and cultural competency, staying in the classroom, effective teaching strategies and more. Essentially, teachers in these programs are being taught efficient and effective ways to teach oppressed students. Schools fail and children don’t learn because when the teacher is actually placed in an urban school, the oppression they were taught that minority students go through doesn’t apply. Why? Because there is no one form of oppression, just as there is no one form of blackness as presented back in slavery. I think black students are suspended more due to the complications of black life and lack of cultural awareness in teachers
Sidenote: This may be really confusing. I am still trying to deconstruct this topic/problem, so I wanted to post something about it to get more opinions.
U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. Civil Rights Date Collection Data Snapshot: School Discipline. 2014, http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rulesforengagement/CRDC%20School%20Discipline%20Snapshot.pdf
You bring to light a very prevalent and out of control issue in our education system today. I think you're definitely right to acknowledge that our teachers unfortunately carry much of the blame in this area, and I'm sure a lot of that is because of their lack of personal understanding when it comes to the black student they are discipling. Such a shame when the teacher ought to be one of the people in the student's life who is encouraging and spurring that student on to growth and full life, whatever that may be! I wonder if some of this could be helped with more teacher support, such as continuing education in restorative justice (challenging the existence of suspensions or expulsions). However, I doubt that only changing the perspectives of teachers would really change these statistics much. I wonder if there is much to be done aside from addressing "the ways the educational system intentionally sets up students of color." We have not been able figure out an equitable school structure in this country, and because of this, racial segregation and racial discrimination have been perpetuated and will continue to be perpetuated. I think we have to start with ideologies beyond those of only the teachers, but principals, parents, school board members, representatives, senators, presidents, voters as well. This inequitable education system has evolved out of segregation and exclusion, and so it has developed and habitualized discriminatory tendencies. As these teachers emerge fresh from their urban education classes intent on changing the world with their culturally relevant and anti-oppressive pedagogy, they enter a system bent against their purpose. They enter school that have less than 3% students of color. They enter schools that are labeled "minority majority" that have metal detectors at every entrance and suffocating discipline policies. They enter into a contract stating that their job depends upon the improvement of their students' test scores. They enter pressures and discover oppressions within the school system we have built in this country. Yes, many of our teachers need to be confronted about their personal racism when it comes to discipline in the classroom (and for life in general as well). But I think it would do a disservice to the students suffering in our school systems to forget that we have an obligation to fight for and create equitable schooling as well.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that you brought up this topic. The high prevalence of suspension and expulsion rates in the African American community is something that should be addressed more. Almost one year ago I started tutoring and mentoring at an after school care program in Frayser, a neighborhood about 10 minutes from campus. I had no idea how far behind some of the kids were, and still are. One day I asked the director of the program why some 5th graders still were not reading, and was told that almost every student at the school they attend was reading below grade level. I really believe that suspensions are a big contributor to the problem because just about all of the kids that come to the after school care program have been suspended, sometimes for a week at a time. How can they ever catch up? Imagine how hard it is for a child in Kindergarten or 1st grade who misses classes where the other students are learning to read, but they are at home watching TV. They get back and are behind. That leads to them getting frustrated and they stop trying. Teachers do not have the time to catch them up. Then they get pushed ahead and like I'm seeing now, there are 5th and 6th graders who barely know how to read and that do not have basic math skills. Where will they end up?
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