Friday, November 20, 2009
Something Interesting
Today I was walking around the classroom monitoring the students while they worked on a writing worksheet. One the worksheet were pictures that the students had to color in with crayons. From the distance, I heard a group shouting so I went over to them. A white boy and and African American boy were arguing about the color of a crayon. The white boy said "this is skin color!" The African American said "no its peach!" They went back and forth a few times and finally I asked to see the crayon and it was apriot color. I told the students that and we started talking about fruits and their colors. I found it interesting that the white boy was saying this. Does he acknowledge the different skin colors in his classroom? Where did he learn that the crayon was "skin color?" Something interesting to think about...
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Wow, that is really interesting to hear. I'm surprised I did not notice that myself, because I think this was the day we were in the same room working with the students.
ReplyDeleteThis just goes to show you how different students can be and how their own background and experiences can affect how they view things in the world. It is accurate, as Delpit says, that everyone has their own cultural capital, and certain views that they have been molded or told to believe.
Clearly the white boy recognizes that the crayon is a similar color of this skin, but he does not accept the fact that there are multiple colors of skin that are not the same as him, or that crayon. I am curious to know how he picked up on this idea. I wonder if race and the color of skin is something that is emphasized in his home, or if he is just comfortable with what he knows personally. Since he is, himself, white, maybe he is just more comfortable and has more experience with his own skin color, which he sees everyday.
Then again, he is the minority in the school that he goes to, so one would assume that he would be almost desensitized to the differences in skin color.
It is interesting, because I think I vaguely remember being a small child and referring to that peach crayon as "skin color." I grew up mostly surrounded by white people, like myself, so I think it was just natural for me to associate that color with skin, since it is all I saw, for the most part.
I have to say that I am glad that the African American boy did not just accept it as "skin color." Though it is one of the skin colors in the world, it is not the only one. It seems really insignificant, because it is just children fighting over crayons, but I believe that thinking like that can have deeper repercussions sometimes.
When little things like that incessantly reinforce the idea that white is the only important or superior skin color than it allows for the white system of privilege to continue to dominant, in my opinion. I think it is important to dispel such ideas, even from a very early age on.
I agree with you Kayla, and I also believe that Lindsey handled the situation very well. However, Lindsey, did you bring this to the teacher? I would tend to think that she could've used it as a teaching moment and possibly discussed race and its underlying issues. I also believe that the African-American student handled it very well, even though you said that there was a little dispute. It seems pretty obvious that either the student has dealt with situations like that, or his parents have instilled in him a sense of pride and selflishness.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is...CRAZY!!! I would have liked to know what he would say if you handed him a light brown, brown, or black crayon asking him if they could also be skin colors. As children, we usually point out people who are different from us and ask our parents why? Maybe this little boy was solely making the connection to his own skin color because like every child the world revolves around them; everything is about what they want and what they like.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that you handled it well. I think bringing it to the teacher would have been a good idea, so she could have used it as a teaching experience. Along with her teaching lesson she could have used children's literature that illustrates boys and girls like themselves that are not all the same skin color.
I had a similar incident in my classroom as well. There was a little girl and a little boy coloring a picture. The little girl pulled out a crayon and announced to the boy that she was going to use rojo for the boy's shirt in the picture. The little boy said no thats red. They went back and forth arguing about the color of the crayon not knowing that what they were really saying was one in the same. This allowed me to see two different aspects about this classroom. The first was that some students were still relying on their native tongue in their school work. The second was that when we are teaching our students about differences among people we also need to emphasize language. I stepped in and explained to the two students that rojo means red in spanish. I don't think that the students were being selfish and felt like they had to be right. I honestly think they just had to be taught. They also have to be reassured that they are both right. We learned from Lisa Delpit that we should not disrupt a student's development in their native language;rather they should use their native language to help them learn what is unfamiliar.
That is such an astonishing thing to hear. It is amazing how children pick up on things like that. Thinking back, I always remember coloring skin with any sort of light orange/peach color, yet I can't recall that connection being explicitly taught. It must have been such a subtle thing to have picked up on, which I assume is the case with the white student.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find even more interesting is that I was in a classroom about 2 weeks ago, and the teacher was holding up samples of a worksheet they had worked on the previous day. She held up one sheet which depicted a person with purple skin. "This is stinky work! PU! Skin is not purple or green. It is peach, like this!" she said, as she held up a picture with a person colored in a light apricot color. I do not remember if she said anything about black or tan being acceptable after that, because I was so shocked that she referred to peach as "skin color" without immediately saying that skin color could also be black or tan (especially because the majority of the students in that class were black). She is a lovely woman, and I know she probably did not give much thought to it, but I wonder what some of the students in her class felt like when she made that comment.