Tea Time with Teachers

In " Voices of our Foremothers: Celebrating the Legacy of African-American Women Educators," Sunny-Marie Birney describes how she felt growing up having been adopted people of Euro-American descent.  She says that she feels like a motherless child because she was never able to connect her parents.  When she began going to school her African-American profesors really connected with her and she felt that they were like her mothers.  They impacted her life and made lasting impressions. 

 I just wanted to highlight the importance of having a relationship with professors.  In college I feel that it is important for teachers and students to form relationships.  Every student is different and teachers should respect that.  I agree with Jacqueline Jordan Irvine that students perform the best when their teachers care for them.  Personally I do better when I know that my teacher cares about me.  This is one of the reasons why I love Spelman.  It is not a big school, so teachers actually know me by name.  I know that the teachers care about me because if I have been absent, they ask " is everything ok?"  They may shoot me an email about it or something. A lot of professors at bigger schools do not even know your name.  Teachers and students should make the same effort in trying to develop a relationship.  Students should go to office hours not only when you need help, but just to stop by and find out about their life.  My calculus teacher and I have a good relationship.  I go to her when I need help and just to talk.  She watches BET's The Game just like I do and we bond over that.  Knowing your teacher will come along way.  Your professor may be able to get you that intership that you wanted, and you may need a recommendation.  So I challenge you to get to know your teachers.

Downtrodden, but not broken!!

This discussion concerning how becoming an educated African American has created a more concentrated effort to be sure I do not take my educational access for granted any longer.  In “Lessons From Down Under: Reflections on Meanings of Literacy and Knowledge From an African American Female growing up in Rural Alabama," Besse House –Soremekun vividly describes the hardship and tedious journey we had to endure in the South. 

She explains three different types of situations that contributed to some of the problems as well as the success of becoming literate. 

1)       (Problem) Due to slavery and race (being an African American), early access to literacy was denied or not given the best of what was offered.  We all know that learning how to read and write was forbidden during slavery.  Then to make matters worse, after the end of slavery, African Americans attended and even developed their own school; however, we still did not have the best school equipment and text books. 

2)      ( Problem) Written and Unwritten Laws:  In the South, during the Civil Rights era, laws known as “Jim Crow” laws were created. This law stated that African Americans were “separate but equal”, which allowed blacks access to restaurants, buses, public facilities and schools but had to sit in a separate area (63).  For instance, if we did ride the bus, we had to sit in the back.  The affects of this law is where the unwritten law came into effect.

One problem was that within the school system, there was no African American literature to glean from. 

Besse states “the message I interpreted from such forms of inequality was that Black people were unequal to Whites and had minimal value” (63). 

3)      ( Success) Oral Tradition was highly regarded as very important.  African Americans held on to their oral tradition in order to keep the culture alive.  By doing this, we were able to pass down our history and also teach one another life issues. 

The South really helped develop a determination in our ancestors which has been carried down to our generation.  Despite the hostile environment we had to endure to become equal, we still were able to keep the “fire” alive in us. 

Just Dont Get It the First Time

              In the essay, Unearthing Hidden Literacy: Seven Lessons I Learned in a Cotton Field,  Lillie Smith recounts one of her most distinct childhood memories of picking cotton at her aunt’s house. At the time she could not see how picking cotton could be beneficial to her life. As the years went by and Smith continued her education, she took a course entitled Black Women’s Literacy which opened her eyes. While taking the course, she learned about different female activist who endured similar negative situations and had something positive as their outcome. The course work she was given allowed her to assess the situation and thus view how she had grown from that experience.

                Sometimes it takes a while for a person to see that what they are going through can possibly have a positive outcome. For example, all throughout middle and high school my parents would always tell me not to procrastinate. I thought they just wanted me to get out their face and do some work, but the night before that assignment was due I was rushing and stressed, and everything was all bad. My parents would simply say, “didn’t I tell you to do your work ahead of time.”  At that moment I would realize that they were right and if I would have done my work when they told me too I would not be in that predicament. Since this occurred on many occasions, I should have learned my lesson the first time, but for whatever reason I did not. Now whenever I get long term assignments,  I do my best to start them early because of my many mishaps in middle and high school.