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. Problem is they can't. Teachers are more often than not woefully unprepared and unqualified to "teach the kids that are directly in front of" them anytime those kids are Black, Brown, poor, immigrant, ESL&/or disabled. Gather 'round. Let me explain. #education #thread https://twitter.com/juliaerin80/status/1253469068432154624
. Problem is they can't. Teachers are more often than not woefully unprepared and unqualified to "teach the kids that are directly in front of" them anytime those kids are Black, Brown, poor, immigrant, ESL&/or disabled. Gather 'round. Let me explain. #education #thread https://twitter.com/juliaerin80/status/1253469068432154624
Most teaching programs only require ONE COURSE in special education. ONNNNNNE. I know because I often ask them from school to school that I work in supporting/training teachers and students.
I had a 3rd grade child in CPS on my caseload that because of his cognitive disability, he couldnt recognize the letters of the alphabet. When I offered to also do an activity with the class, the teacher said she was down for it...Then she said, "He's not the only one."
She had me come over to a work table and just told a random group of students to come over. With each letter card she put on the table, out rang a cacophony of random letters. They were in the 3rd grade and could not recognize the letters of the alphabet.
I won't get into all of the details, but that particular absence of knowledge in the children wasn't the fault or failure of the teacher.
I gave that illustration to say classrooms are often filled with children with varying levels of learning difficulties but
I gave that illustration to say classrooms are often filled with children with varying levels of learning difficulties but
teachers often are at a loss as to what they are supposed to do. Children with learning challenges and cognitive disabilities are often a significant portion of the children teachers are given. And teachers generally dont have a peer reviewed clue as to how to teach them.
Emphasis on *peer reviewed*, bc many teachers often will execute popular teaching program philosophy snake oil methods and blame THE CHILD when it fails...bc the ethos is "Almighty I do what I THINK is best, and if child doesn't respond to MY best, CHILD must change, not IIIII!"
When the real problem is often that the teacher needs to change the method, but they dont know what to change to, how to change it or why because the teaching programs NEVER. TAUGHT. THEM.
It's why it's not rare for when a child is performing as an outlier on the curve, u have some teachers that dont just make that referral for the child to be tested, but they want that child OUT of their classroom.
Wanna tick off a teacher?
Deliver the "slow learner" test result
Wanna tick off a teacher?
Deliver the "slow learner" test result
When that happens, they want that child out of their classroom, they assume the child cant learn in their classroom because of what they rarely to never admit even to themselves- the child "cant" learn bc the teacher "can't" teach [them]. She'on know how. https://twitter.com/WokeLiving/status/1239942555019681792?s=19
(Oh wait, I didn't explain - in my state, the "slow learner" test result generally means the child doesn't qualify to be removed from the classroom due to the result and correlating laws that state a child is to be in the least restrictive environment (LRE))
And when I say students who's performance falls in the range of being an outlier of the curve, that includes gifted children. If a child is Black or Latinx, the teacher's eye turns black and their neurotransmitters cause them to not see the children. 
https://hechingerreport.org/up-to-3-6-million-students-should-be-labeled-gifted-but-arent/
https://hechingerreport.org/up-to-3-6-million-students-should-be-labeled-gifted-but-arent/
*das an eye roll btw
So on to the next reason teachers can't teach the children they're given:
They ain't got no cultural competency.
Usually.
AND WHAT DO I ALWAYS TEACH YOU CLASS? SAY IT WITH ME-
YOU CANNOT BE FULLY
PROFESSIONALLY COMPETENT
IF YOU ARE NOT
CULTURALLY COMPETENT.
VERY GOOD. lol
They ain't got no cultural competency.
Usually.
AND WHAT DO I ALWAYS TEACH YOU CLASS? SAY IT WITH ME-
YOU CANNOT BE FULLY
PROFESSIONALLY COMPETENT
IF YOU ARE NOT
CULTURALLY COMPETENT.
VERY GOOD. lol
"Gilliam, a Yale professor &...expert in preschool discipline, discovered both black & white early-childhood educators showed signs of implicit bias in administering discipline, seemingly rooted in different, though equally harmful, race-based judgements." https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/09/the-high-standard-set-by-black-teachers-for-black-students/501989/
Not only do teaching practices lack cultural competency,
Not only do school curricula lack cultural competency and is saturated with White Supremacy and more often than not, teachers choose the route of oblivion as they inflict it on children,
Not only do school curricula lack cultural competency and is saturated with White Supremacy and more often than not, teachers choose the route of oblivion as they inflict it on children,
Not only are teachers themselves -like the literal people- overwhelmingly culturally incompetent humans, as approx 80%+ of public school teachers are White and the cultural ignorance of White Americans is a long studied and established fact of existence.
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/raceindicators/spotlight_a.asp
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/raceindicators/spotlight_a.asp
(Bc I know I can't say sumthin like that without at least a tidbit of support showing the eternal flame of White cultural cluelessness: Did you know that in the 1950s, PRE BROWNvBOARD, a survey asked White Amcns if they thought Black ppl receive equal education. They said YES.)
But on top of alllllllllodat,
teachers regardless of race show their whole entire anti-Black behind in classrooms the nation over. In addition to participating in and FEEDING the school-to-prison pipeline. Lowkey working with some real Kara energy. (WHERE is Black Lightning!)
teachers regardless of race show their whole entire anti-Black behind in classrooms the nation over. In addition to participating in and FEEDING the school-to-prison pipeline. Lowkey working with some real Kara energy. (WHERE is Black Lightning!)
Add on to that insufficient education in history and sociology, in immigration, no in-depth race, class and cultural analysis, behavior analysis and more as a required and SIGNIFICANT part of their academic preparation to be a teacher, & yeah - teachers just arent given the range
And the students they're given? If they're Black, Brown, poor, poor, immigrant, ESL, and/or disabled they are too often and generally left poorly served, unserved, marginalized further and targeted by the teachers who were never adequately or exceptionally prepared to teach them.
