Today I'm going to tell a story. I will warn ya'll now that this will probably be my longest entry, so if you aren't interested, that's ok. This is a story about an injustice that would largely go unnoticed otherwise.
For those of you that don't know I went to an elementary school in a very poor neighborhood. That school doesn't even exist anymore. I will also point out that as a straight white male I qualified for the Arkansas Minority Scholarship. It is offered to students who graduated from an elementary school were their race was represented by 10% or less of the graduating class. So I was the white kid in this school
Now I'm going to give you a little bit more background, but recognize that I'm not bragging, just trying to set a tone.
I was the only fourth grader in the Little Rock School District on the quiz bowl team in whatever year I was in fourth grade. That was when sixth grade was still in elementary school. The next year it only went to fifth grade, so I was also the only student in the LRSD that had been to quiz bowl the year before. I was also on matholympiads (an LRSD mathematics competition). I was also in all of the gifted and talented programs that our school offered, and I gave the graduation speech when we graduated. The teachers, counselors, and principals loved me.
I was smart. That is the point. I was smart and I thought I had potential.
Well come graduation time for fifth grade we were talking with our counselors about what classes we would be taking in middle school. How exciting! It wasn't so much which classes we would be taking, but what level we would be taking. Well for those of you who know Dunbar offers regular, and pre-ap.
Well having been the kid that was always setting the standard in elementary school I proudly told the counselor that I wanted to take Pre-AP. This is where things got shady. She looked at me (and yes for some reason I still remember this moment, maybe I knew it was going to be important later in my life) and she said, "Well Pre-AP is really hard, I think it'd be best if you took regular and see what you think about it."
Well I never questioned my counselor, Ms. Davidson, she was AMAZING. So of course I said ok and went on my merry way.
Well middle school comes along and I'm in all regular classes. And two of my teachers, in english and in social studies, were shocked that I was in regular (with all of the black kids that I went to elementary school with) and had me transferred to their Pre-AP courses. I'm grateful for this. Those regular classes were absolutely worthless. I was disappointed that I was leaving all of my friends, but I got to be put in classes where I was actually learning (with all of the white kids).
Here is my problem. Was I singled out because I was white? Did these middle school teachers think I didn't belong just because I was white? That I didn't look like the rest of the class?
But here is my deeper rooted problem.
Why did my counselor think I wasn't ready for Pre-AP. Did she tell every student at my elementary school that they should take regular? And how many of my black friends stayed in those regular classes for the rest of their school career because that's where their friends are, because that's where they looked like everyone else in the class?
How many young black kids got this awful foundation because their elementary school counselors had low expectations for their future? Because of where they come from did they limit where they were going?
How many poor black children aren't even being given a chance?
I don't know the answer to that question, but I can sure tell you this: It is a hell of a lot harder to teach a seventeen year old math when no one ever believed in him, and he has no foundation other than regular classes, than a sixth grader with all of the potential in the world.
We have to teach kids when they are young that it's okay to be challenged. If we stick all of the black kids in the challenging classes then they can be with their friends. They can see that it's okay to be taking those classes because they are together. Because EVERYONE is doing it.
Attitudes and mindsets develop at a very young age. I think society is doing a poor poor job at recognizing this.
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