Guess what stupuid shit I have to have thrown in my face tomorrow at my school inservice?

[alismith]

No problem. Sometimes you just gotta vent and most of the guys here don't mind being vented to.

I had a week long "Diversity Training" class (it met after school every day, for two hours) and finished up on the following Saturday. The teacher was a big Black woman who had a doctorate in Sociology. I went in expecting the worst but that woman was amazing. She didn't condemn anyone and the class dealt, mostly, with how each ethnic group "acted" and the values each group held. By today's PC standards, her whole class dealt with what would be deemed racial profiling. She contrasted Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Orientals, etc. She showed what to expect with each group and how to deal with them effectively. She used humor and personal experiences in her presentations.

Needless to say, I learned a lot and the class was very interesting. I could have listened to her all month and was a little sad when the class ended.

I'm sorry you had to sit through the kind of meeting you had. I've had similar meetings like yours and found the best thing to do was just smile and be quiet. Meetings, like all meetings, eventually end....which is a good thing.

[l921428x]

Ok, sitting down finally.

Meeting sucked. Because I am paranoid, I am going to leave out a few details, as complaining publicly if caught would probably get me in some shit with my boss.

Sat through a meeting over this crap for a couple hours. Listened while one woman pissed and moaned about us not teaching black history month in more detail, and not focusing on it, and how it stifles student interest. I frankly call bullshit on that. I AM ahistory teacher, I have seen very few black students give two shits about it.

Had several other staff, all white, speak out against it in the meeting. One mentioned how in the Military, the only color is green. One talked about how it perpetuates racism to look at the world and our students this way. I wrote out a question asking how is it not racist to take into consideration and allow someones color to dictate how you interact with them, teach them, and feel towards them. I feel this is absolutely racism. I finished my question asking simply just how in todays world a white person can NOT be considered racist? Really stressed HOW can I, as a white male, NOT be called a racist? What am I supposed to do? Sadly, we finished before I had the chance. Again, leaving out some detail here. I also know two other nearby districts have aparently done this according to friends who are also teachers, and aparently a lot of people do not like it. I work with a truly wonderful black woman who is quiet, serious, and very intelligent. She too took issue with this. That gave me hope.

I do not judge my kids on their color. I also refuse to. If they really decide to go this direction in education, I will not follow. I will openly rebel and refuse. I make judgements on my kids based on their attitude, work ethic, behavior towards eachother, and the way they present themselves. THATS is the only moral way of justly making judgement calls on another person.

I also would say that being white doesn't define me. The struggles I have been through, my beliefs, and the events that shaped my life define me. My color is just that. My color. This meeting tried to imply that the color of my skin got me my job and got me through college. Well, I will say this: If I stood on the backs of minorities to get through college and get my teaching job to be a member of the working poor.....Then someone better damned well find those minorities I stood on and beat the shit out of them. Because I took out 35 grand in student loans, paid cash, spent 9 years in college, worked full time, suffered, my wife put off having a kid for a LONG TIME, I spent 3 years working in aircraft while going to school and simply never saw her awake. Literally got up at 3am, was on the clock at 3:48, off work at 2:18pm, in class from 4pm to 8 or 9, home by 10, up til 11:30 or 12......to start it all over again. That was during 05-08, when the company I worked for did record business and we did a ton of overtime. I struggled. It was not easy, or handed to me. And if I stood on their backs, then they damned sure didn't work very hard for me. No one paid for my tuition, no one paid for my books, no one paid for my housing, no one gave me money for my skin color.

Just pissed me off. People that think like this are really.....evil to me. They are lacking in either morality or intelligence and rational thought. Or all. Probably all.

This is an anthem.