Trayvon Martin in my class...

Trayvon Martin

I've questioned if and when I should speak to my students about this.  My first instinct was to jump on this and start talking to them about this, however, I had to stop and ask myself three questions.

1. What does this look like in my room?
2. What does this sound like in my room?
3. What does this FEEL like in my room?

Questions 1-2 will generate a particular FEELING, and that's where I want to be careful.

I have a lot of students that look like me.  I have students who look like Trayvon.  I even have students who look like George Zimmerman.  Believe it or not, I'm more concerned with my students who look like George Zimmerman.  Here's why.  My students are at the age where they are making all kinds of generalization about life, based on what's being done and said around them.  They will internalize any emotion that this conversation may evoke.  I don't want my kids to FEEL that their classmates feel a  certain way about them, or that their TEACHER feels a certain way about them, because of the horrible choice George Zimmerman made that day.

I was in fifth grade during Operation Desert Storm.  I went to an Islamic School at the time.  I was not worried about our country losing a war.  I wasn't worried about soldiers or yellow flags.  I was worried about my friends from Iraq not wanting to be friends with me anymore, because I was American.

I haven't fully figured out how to speak about this, without clear and evident emotional attachment.  I have to be objective.   I have talked to one of my boys about how we are judged.  I explained to him that I wouldn't want anything to happen to them, simply because he was judged by how he's DRESSED.

I want this conversation to be much more meaningful than "black unarmed boy gun downed, by white/hispanic male".  I want this to be about the injustice.  Most of my kids' family fled from a country that was full of injustice, and now this.... I want the conversation to be about how we should be cautious, but not quick to judge and demonize others.  I want them to know that regardless of his skin color, Trayvon did not deserve to die. I want them to know that regardless of his skin color, George Zimmerman should be in jail.

I'm going to have a conversation with my Principal about how do we bring this awareness as a SCHOOL. This has to be more than teachers saying this in one classroom, and something else in another classroom.

So, there it is.  I have't talked to them.  This doesn't mean that I will not.  This means that I want it to be appropriate and meaningful.

Educationally Yours,
T.W.T