by Mary Wilson, mwilson@jcadvocate.com
Typically, when students are out of school for district
in-service, their teachers spend the day in meetings, talking curriculum and
learning new ways of instruction. However, last Friday, teachers in the Grandview
School District participated in a visual representation of privilege among
their peers and how that affects their teaching.
Superintendent Dr. Kenny Rodrequez invited every certified
staff member onto the Grandview High School football field for a privilege
walk. Teachers lined up evenly, and Rodrequez read a series of statements,
asking that each person take a step forward or backward if each statement were
true in their lives.
Eventually, the educators were no longer even in their line.
Some took several steps forward, some took several steps back, while others
remained on the line where they started. The end result was a look into how instances
in a person’s life which cannot be controlled often relay into how they
perceive the world around them.
“We have a lot of things in common,” said Rodrequez, “but
the number one thing we have in common is that we are all educators and we are
all teachers. We are all one member of the Grandview family. We support each
other, but we also need to understand that there are varying levels of things
that happened to us in our backgrounds that impact us every single day.”
He went on to say that life experiences have an impact on
decisions that teachers make, the way they teach and the way relationships are
built with their students.
“With all the things that we have in common, we still have a
lot of differences,” said Rodrequez.
The exercise was part of the district administration’s focus
on cultural competency to better relate to students and families. The activity
led to conversations regarding unconscious bias and trauma.
“We’re going to continue this work on cultural competency,
not just because it is a board priority, but because it is one of the main
things that we have to get right,” said Rodrequez. “If we don’t get this right,
we will not be as successful with our students and our families as we should
be.”
Rodrequez said that if the exercise was done with the
students in the district, the outcome would have looked very similar. Several
Grandview educators felt uncomfortable throughout the demonstration; some were
emotional afterward.
“It was truly an
eye-opening exercise that showcased how each of us comes from a different
background with different experiences,” said Grandview High School teacher
Diane Euston.
After the privilege walk, district teachers reflected on
what they felt and how they can use their own experiences to better connect
with students and their families.
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