What's In Your Toolbox?
27 by Crystal Chodes-Squibb
Bingham Elementary
Take the Quiz - How Privileged Are You?
Have you ever stopped to consider how privileged you are? I recently took a quiz to assess individual privilege during a training session for equity champions. When I took the quiz, I knew that I’d conquered some hardships in life, but I’d also been afforded certain advantages that meant I would have a reasonably middle of the range score —or so I thought. Once I received my score, champions lined up in order from the highest score to the lowest. I assumed I would be somewhere in the middle of the group; however, as we checked scores and lined up, I found myself moving closer and closer to the end of the line. When I finally settled into my position, I was second to last in the line. My score was 27.
As I stood there listening to the discussion amongst champions, I felt exposed. I thought about the questions that placed me at the end of the line and wondered what the other champions might ascertain about my life. I left the training that day deep in thought and feeling the need to self-reflect.
27! Many people in line that day were well above my score and some educators who have taken that quiz about privilege may have scored well below. I thought about a student who had destroyed my classroom only days earlier, knocking over furniture and throwing anything he could get his hands on around the room. I thought of another student whose home life was creating a series of frustrating and heartbreaking moments at our site, including trying to run from the school and openly aggressive behavior toward myself, staff, and other students.
I thought about them and all of my students, both past and present. I thought about a former student I watched being taken away in handcuffs or students that I’ve visited at Burrell. Where would they fall on the number line? And, how was I to take the day’s learning and inward reflection, and somehow let the feeling of being exposed reflect on my practices in the classroom?
The truth is that there is no one answer or list of surefire strategies that educators can take without first reflecting on their own experiences. In a book titled Collective Efficacy: How Educators’ Beliefs Impact Student Learning by Jenni Donohoo, readers are provided a series of protocols to help focus and deepen conversations amongst staff that will lead to greater teacher efficacy or the belief of a staff that together they can impact student achievement.
