When my children started attending Jackson for the dual immersion program there, in my head I told myself how happy the teachers would be to have my children. I knew Jackson was in an area with high poverty. I worked in a neighborhood with high poverty and I know the challenges that many of the children face. And in my head I assumed that meant that many of the parents would have limited education. That my children would have a big advantage over many of the students there.
Now there was some truth in my thoughts. I had worked at a Title 1 school for several years at that point and many of the families do have limited education. But as I got to know the parents at Jackson, I discovered that there were quite a few that had as much or more education than I did. Several were living there because it was in relative proximity to the university and were pursuing advanced degrees. I held a bias that was neither fully accurate nor at all helpful. And many of the students were great students.
What is ironic about this is I grew up quite poor. I lived in a trailer park until 5th grade, then in an apartment for 5-7th grade and then with my grandparents for 8-9th grade. I had either free or reduced lunch throughout my childhood. But my mom had a college degree and my dad had some college. And I was smart. I was a great student. I know better than to assume poverty makes you a poor student. And yet, I still carried a bit of that bias. We all have bias and we can't do anything about our biases until we come to recognize them.
LESSONS LEARNED: Experience can help us uncover and reform our unconscious biases.
We should not make judgments about people based on their income or the neighborhood in which they reside.
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