Racial and Educational Injustice

                   I am currently completing an internship at Promise Academy, and elementary charter school. I work in a third grade classroom during the students' Language Arts period. Third grade is a crucial year in terms of reading. Students who do not graduate from the third grade as proficient readers are at great risk of dropping out of high school or turning to crime. After third grade, students no longer learn to read; they begin to read to learn. However, students who are not successful readers will be unable to learn, since they are expected to heavily learn through reading.

            This third grade class is entirely made up of African American students, many of who are really struggling with reading. Something happened this week, on Election Day, that I will never forget. The teacher, Ms. Randle was working with four boys who particularly struggle with reading. As they were reading, Ms. Randle grew frustrated because they kept getting stuck on their site words. (The students are expected to know site words like the back of their hands). After one of the students got stuck on a site word the fourth or fifth time, she stopped them and gave them a serious talk. She told them that it is absolutely imperative that they read every single night in order to improve their reading skills. She told them that people build jail sells based on how many African American third grade males cannot read by the time they move onto fourth grade. She told them that they had to work extra hard because they were black and they were males. She explained that she also had to work extra hard, being a black female, and this meant they all had two strikes against them. She then told them that she was not mad at them or yelling at them, although her tone was very stern and serious. She told them she was being honest with them because she loved them, and she wanted the best for them. By the end of her speech, I had tears in my eyes.

Being an education major, I have learned about how the amount of jail cells that are built is dependent on the amount of black boys who cannot read by the end of third grade. I was very disturbed when I heard this for the first time, but nothing can compare to hearing a dedicated, desperate teacher tell this reality to her students who are prone to this unjust future. No eight-year-old should ever have to hear that jail could very well be in their future. However, I do not blame Ms. Randle for being so candid with her students. Some may argue that the Ms. Randle’s speech was too much for third graders to hear, but I think she did the right thing. She was motivating and pushing them with something that is so real and pertinent in their lives. This fear that she instilled in them could be what saves them from being locked up in their future.

I have grown to adore these young students. They are charismatic, curious, sweet, and extremely funny. I am so heartbroken to even imagine that these good, innocent children may end up in jail solely based on our corrupt education system as well as our corrupt justice system. Our country desperately needs justice, particularly racial justice, but I jus cannot help but feel hopeless in regards to these justices in the light of the presidential election.