Student Opinions: Females
"This article especially resonated with me as a black female student. I believe I am more interested in learning when I can relate to a teacher. It is not absolutely necessary as long as a teacher is able to make all students feel welcome, but it is definitely beneficial to have an adult I feel like I can make a connection with and trust. I've found my black teachers are the ones I most look up to, and inspire me to be resilient. As a student, I've experienced white teachers that have been ignorant of issues black people face, and have suffered in school because of it. There were times I felt unwelcomed or singled out in the classroom. Teachers are people, and we all have subconscious bias, but as authority figures and role models in the community, they should be trained to recognized their biases in order to create a safer and better learning environment for all students."
~Alysia, Hakensack
"Then I approached high school and it became more substantial I learn it. I had a female teacher and was able to ask her for extra help. I made an extra effort to come in early to do a private lesson with her. I can say I was more comfortable with this and learned much better one on one with her. This was only because I was comfortable for asking her for that extra help."
~Marielle, Burlington
"Diversity within the education system may be one of the most important factors in increasing students' understandings of the world. Going through education with only white female teachers is setting up children to incoluntarily stereotype white people and women as educators...Increasing diversity in student's educational work space is essential to opening up their minds to the regularity of diversity in everyday life and erasing sterotypes from centuries past."
~Sophia Fox, Providence
"It makes sense that students do better when they have teachers they identify with. Although I am not exactly sure why. It may be because they trust the teacher more to accurately educate them. It may be because students see themselves in their teachers. Majority of my teachers have been white and female, however I have had two black male teachers, an Asian teacher, and a Hispanic teacher. I feel that having a diversity of teachers made me more excited to learn."
~Kayla, Providence