Getting Unstuck #145/146: What Are We Doing to Our Children of Color?
Breaking Away from Stereotyping
Our guest
Alexs Pate is the President and CEO of Innocent Technologies and the creator of The Innocent Classroom, a program for K–12 educators that aims to transform U.S. public education and end disparities by closing the relationship gap between educators and students of color. He is the author of The innocent Classroom: Dismantling Racial Bias to Support Students of Color.
Alexs Pate on why this conversation matters
When our children of color are born, they are free. Undamaged. Unfortunately, children of color are being held in virtual bondage to the negative stereotypes that our culture has developed and perpetuated about them. These stereotypes define our children as threatening, violent, criminal, poor, and academically disengaged. These stereotypes are internalized by many children of color as guilt before they even enter the school door. For many children, these stereotypes actually become a script that influences their behavior and inhibits their ability to be engaged learners. This script is the reason for the achievement gap and other disparities of the education system. There is a way to rewrite the script and bridge that gap.
How you can use the podcast
Alexs talks about a continuum with one end being the “guilt” the student carries into the classroom, the result of living under various stereotypes. The other end of the continuum is “innocence” – freedom from guilt. Listen in the conversation for how an educator can bridge the two end points.
Closing thought
Engage with our children in a way that allows them to see you struggling to find out who they are — their goodness. Let them, and they will come to you. And when you find a child's good, you may be the first person who's ever found it.
Connect with Alex
@InnocentClass
@AlexsPate
