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Summary Of White Teacher By Vivian Gussin Paley

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I read White Teacher by Vivian Gussin Paley and was immediately drawn in by her writing style. I also find it easy to relate to her as the proverbial female, middle class, white teacher (or soon to be in my case) and her concerns about whether to draw attention to her students’ differences (would this make it better or worse for that student?) or pretend that there are no differences (is that fair to that student, to the whole class?). The questions she posed in her preface really summed up what I have found myself grappling with in this class: is this classroom in which I live a fair place for every child who enters? Does every child and family have an equal say in the worlds we invent? To write I am getting a better grasp on this feels
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courses in college that have opened up my mind to the issue. The more information I learn about this issue, the more surprised I am that our society still exhibits bias, because as much as the United States preaches about equality, it appears as if society has segregation in minor ways. Although the debate between whether there are biased questions on the SATs or not seems to favor that there aren’t by popular opinions, there is still biased behavior occurring in school systems that prevent certain groups of students from getting the proper resources needed. Because I would like to work in an low-income area, which most likely would contain minorities, as a teacher I would make the effort to help those students get the sufficient help needed. This motivates me to become a part of the education field, because caring teachers are much needed in area like this.

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The first and most important display of diversity is when Mrs. Elliot splits up the class by eye color. The point of this was to teach students how little sense is made from treating someone based on an aspect of their appearance. A clear example of social justice in the film is shown shortly after the class is divided, when the blue eyed children were given extra recess time while the brown eyed students didn’t get any recess time at all. There was no clear reason why one group was seen as superior and given more privilege aside from the children’s’ eye color; this is an issue that is still seen often today. The whole documentary is about a social experiment involving discrimination.

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