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Tristan Whitten

Mr. Frost

SOCI 1113

16 April 2023

Is There a Connection Between Race and Learning 

Growing up, I went to many different schools. Each school had a different atmosphere. We were

a military family, so every two years, we had to move. You learned to make friends in each

school, but you knew that one day you would have to move and make new friends all over

again.  Schools on military installations are very diverse.  We had African Americans, Latinos,

Puerto Ricans, Jamaicans, Filipino, Mexicans, and a variety of European ethnicities going to the

same school. A lot of different cultures merged into a class or school.  I guess it was a melting

pot of sorts.  Even though the parents and students were of different ethnic backgrounds, the

teacher and administration were mostly white females. Thinking back, I can only remember one

African American teacher.  Some of them seemed to look down on some of my classmates and

didn’t seem too concerned about their learning. “Secondary teachers have lower expectations for

students of color and students from disadvantaged backgrounds.” (The power of the Pygmalion

effect). It was like they decided that child is never going to college, so they did not put any effort

in with “those” children. For people like those kids, their fate was decided for them by a teacher

that does not know their home life. “High school students whose teachers have higher

expectations about their future success are far more likely to graduate from college.”( The power

of the Pygmalion effect). I even remember hearing them saying to a teacher’s helper that one boy

wasn’t going to get it, so to leave him alone.  At the next school I went to, there were only
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Caucasian children and teachers. When my mom moved us back to Oklahoma, we moved to a

small town. Where ethnic diversity was not something those kids had experienced. I think there

were maybe two African American children in the entire school. It was filled with mostly white

kids from a variety of economic statuses. But the kids there seemed to travel in circles that

matched their parent’s income. And the teachers treated the kids from lower-income families

differently than the kids from the “big named” families in that town that they knew had money.

Your clothes made a difference, and what type of car your parents drove matters. Even when

playing sports, the “big name” kids played while the other kids sat on the bench. It didn’t matter

if they had skills, only what your name was. “The other students in the class could also

experience a blow to their self-esteem; they may not believe that they are good enough to be the

teacher’s favorite.” (Favoritism shown by teachers can lead to an imbalanced and divided

classroom.) I witnessed kids hanging their heads, and some even cried when the teacher ignored

their questions. Some kids would ask us, their classmates. If we responded to them by asking the

teacher, they would say, “She doesn't like me, or She won't help me.” That mindset of the teacher

not liking them or being unwilling to help came after being repeatedly told throughout the year. I

can’t help it if you don’t listen, I can't help it if you don't want to learn when I’m teaching, or,

well, you should have learned that already from a teacher. And you guessed it, the kids treated

like that were poor and few kids of color. Yet, when the class pet or the favored kids needed

help, the teacher seemed to drop everything to help them. The teacher also praised the kids

before us for being talented, hardworking, and smart. I remember those things because when

your name is not listed as a “Star Student,” it leaves a mark. It seemed the teacher only cared if a

select few in her class learned.  The last elementary school I attended was where my mom was a

teacher. I was in Stillwater, it was the main ELL campus. We had Muslims, Koreans, African
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Americans, Germans, and people from Libya, Iraq, Turkey, Japan, China, and the Philippines. 

Some of which only spoke their native language.  So, once again, I was surrounded by kids of

different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. The kids came from a variety of socioeconomic

classes.  But the main income class at this school was the lower one. The building was filled with

teachers who looked different and various ethnic groups.  They also provided an atmosphere of

equality, acceptance, and love.  At this school, I learned more about children who lived in

poverty and what that looks like. I heard about kids not having food to eat at home, being evicted

from their homes, and their parents not having enough money to keep the electricity or water on.

I listened as they talked about the police coming to their homes, about parents getting arrested or

being in jail.  I saw kids wearing the same clothes multiple days in a row, and their shoes had

holes. I learned about different cultures. We even had this night at school called “Cultural

Night” where families from different countries would make food and bring it to the school like

this huge potluck. So, we all got to taste food from their cultures. They also had booths where

families would have activities from their countries for us to do. I enjoyed writing my name in

Chinese and getting a henna tattoo. They would also provide music distinct to their home and

show art. It was an amazing experience. And despite our differences, I was never made to feel

out of place. We were all just kids, having fun, making friends, and learning.  I appreciate the

memories I have from this school because it was the first one to show me that even though our

school was filled with differences, it showed me what acceptance looked like. The teachers

believed in every child and worked hard with the kids in other schools. Teachers would have

ignored or given up on it. It did not matter what color skin the kid had or who their parents were.

If they needed help, they got it. The teachers hugged all the kids. Whether they had dirty clothes

on, they made them feel valued. I felt valued and not judged because my family income was not
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high. It didn’t make a difference, the kids accepted me, and the teachers made me feel loved and

important. They believed in me and pushed me to be the best I could be. They did the same for

my friends. That school was not like the other ones I had experienced. The schools before this

school had been filled with teachers and students that were rude and judgmental. And it was not

a culture of acceptance, nor did the teachers have every child’s best interest at heart. In other

schools, some of the teachers, now that I think back, were most likely a little racist. Because they

treated students of color differently. As I grew up and looked back on my experience, I became

more aware of things I saw or heard at school. And to be honest, I still see the inequality in the

schools my mom has worked at. I see how teachers talk to different kids, and I have heard off-

handed comments about how kids will never get it, so I’ll focus on the ones who can make

progress. Or, well, you know what kind of family they come from, it’s no surprise they cannot

read or behave. And yes, these teachers may not know that their biases are shining through, but

man are they! Thank goodness we have those teachers who are not like that. Teachers like my

mom, who doesn’t care where you come from, will invest her time, energy, and love to help you

be successful. Even when she works at schools with little resources, she will find a way to get

what her students need, even if that means extra time spent at work or spending her own money.

When I got older, I would work in her classroom with her. I could run a small reading or math

group with the best of them. If she needed extra hands on deck, my sister and I were the ones

helping. And when they made progress, knowing sight words or reading independently, it made

me smile. It also made me smile because I could help kids feel valued and cared about. Schools

have been unequal for many years. Unequal funding, unequal distribution of socioeconomic

classes, unequal teachers who are qualified, and availability of curriculum, textbooks, and

technology. District lines are drawn, and sometimes all the lower-class kids or kids of color are
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put in the same school, so unequal culturally. This inequality goes back many years, all the way

back to the 1960s when schools were segregated. In this article it states that “At the center of

these debates are interpretations of the gaps in educational achievement between white and non-

Asian minority students as measured by standardized test scores.” (Unequal opportunity). Until

these things are addressed, there will always be a gap in the availability of quality education,

funding, resources, and achievement of students. 

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Works Cited 

Darling-Hammond, L. (2016, July 28). Unequal opportunity: Race and education. Brookings.

Retrieved April 16, 2023, from https://www.brookings.edu/articles/unequal-opportunity-

race-and-education/ 

Harshman, E. (n.d.). Favoritism shown by teachers can lead to an imbalanced and divided

classroom. The Central Trend. Retrieved April 16, 2023, from

https://thecentraltrend.com/112658/opinion/favoritism-shown-by-teachers-can-lead-to-

an-imbalanced-and-divided-classroom/ 

President, J. C. V., Cusick, J., President, V., Director, S. N. A., Nadeau, S., Director, A.,

Shepherd Director, M., Shepherd, M., Director, Director, E. L. A., Lofgren, E., Ross, J.,

Nelson, D. A., Buchanan, M. J., & Donald, K. (2023, April 14). The power of the

Pygmalion effect. Center for American Progress. Retrieved April 16, 2023, from

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-power-of-the-pygmalion-effect/