Class in the Classroom

In today’s age of standardized testing and increasingly privatized education, the current education system is leaving urban, impoverished schools in the dust. Speaking at the Schomburg Center in Harlem for the launch of his new book, “For While Folks Who Teach in the Hood.. and the Rest of Y’all Too,” Christopher Emdin spoke to a room of educators, calling for them to rethink traditional schooling.

While the title of his book may appear somewhat aggressive to some, Emdin said the title is geared towards teachers from a higher social class who enter urban schools with a “savior mentality” towards their job. These teachers, armed with Common Core curriculums and Teach For America education, the teachers walk in to classrooms expecting them to function like the ones they attended. What they fail to recognize is that the socioeconomic divide between the suburbs and poor urban areas creates a cultural divide. As Emdin said, “After Brown v. Board of Ed, we integrated the schools, but we never integrated the curriculum.” Furthermore, teachers entering this new environment go on to place blame on the students themselves, creating a hostile, even traumatic setting that children must return to every day, according to Emdin.

The prevalence of this broken education system is evident in the fact that while 70% of New York City public school students are of color, a whopping 80% of teachers are white. Although being white certainly does not necessitate being disconnected, most white teachers are and are not connected to their students. As teachers obstinately stick to their curriculums verbatim, they do not personalize their teaching methods and adapt them to the needs of the students as Emdin calls for.

Emdin gave a historical perspective to the current education crisis, comparing urban schools to the Carlisle School, which was ostensibly for the education of Native Americans. However, the schools were actually focused on assimilating natives. Emdin projected before-and-after pictures from the Carlisle School. Those who attended the school looked radically different from when they first entered, with their traditional clothing replaced with new suits and dresses. Mr. Emdin then labeled modern urban education as “neo-indigenous,” focused more on assimilation into whiter, upper-class culture than on actual education and students’ needs. He exemplified this with a hypothetical question: “How many times have you seen a teacher say to a student, ‘Pull up your pants’ before asking ‘How was your day?’”

So what can be done to close this cultural chasm ripped open by a socioeconomic gap? Emdin strongly encouraged teachers to get creative with their teaching plans and adapt to the classroom that they teach in. One example is a system that Emdin himself created, called Hip Hop Ed. Students work together to write songs about the material they learn, and perform their work at an annual competition. He also encourages white teachers to acknowledge their “whiteness” and to learn to adapt. Emdin criticized teachers who work in schools they wouldn’t even send their own children to in areas they wouldn’t live in themselves.

Teachers cannot go on isolating themselves from the students they teach and cannot force their systems on them. Modern education needs to change to fit the needs of students and prioritize their education and understanding of material. Only by changing the fundamental aspects of today’s teaching models can this education gap be fixed.